


Honey Babe

by Ahcutiemonster



Series: Cloud 9 Alternate Universes [1]
Category: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2020-10-27 21:56:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 29,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20767547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ahcutiemonster/pseuds/Ahcutiemonster
Summary: Cloud Strife and thousands of others are suddenly let go from Shinra as they no longer wanted the expense of infantryman. With no where to go, Cloud decided to look for a job at the Honey Bee Inn, never did he think being pretty would make him a millionaire.{Mature because many swears to be safe. I can't write dirty things I'm a child of Jenova but feel free to contact me if you want to write any based off of the story}~sugar baby  AU I guess)





	1. Meeting the Don

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a grown baby so I can't write sexual content but if anyone wants to based off of this story you're more than welcome to, just let me know!

Cloud gulped when his name was called to go into Don Corneo's office. He was scared to be honest. He's heard the horror stories of what can happen to so called "honey bees" but honestly he had no idea where else to go work since no one wants to hire an ex-shinra infantryman. He tried everywhere but some places straight up had signs saying "infantrymen not welcome". He tried hiding it but people would actually go and look up his history and quickly find out his military history. There was the "Honey Babies", who were far more protected and only had to sleep with one person if even , but you had to be stunning to get into that position. Cloud knows he'll end up in the hive and that quite frankly horrifies him.  
He walked into The Don's office and was met with a disenchanted grunt as he worked on whatever was in front of him. 

"So you wanna work at the inn huh?'

"Ye-yes sir."

"You got a bumpkin accent kid." 

"Sorry."

"Nawh, it's cute kid where are you-" The Don had lifted his head and stopped in his tracks. In front of him was a spiky haired teen with a long blonde braid in the back. He had freckles all over his nose and his rosy cheeks and big blue puppy eyes. The kid was perfect and he definitely would be the one to finally hook in the big cash cows. Finally.

"Sir?"  
Corneo jumped from his chair and rushed over. "Say your name again kid."  
"Cloud, Cloud Strife and I'm from Nibelheim. I've been working on my city accent but-"  
Corneo threw his hands up , " No no no don't it's perfect, your fuckin' perfect kid. Turn around."  
Cloud, uncomfortable, slowly turned around until he was facing The Don again.  
"Alrighty kid you know about the Honey Bee Inn's escorting service right? For higher up Shinra men? And some women too I guess."  
"Yea, the Honey Baby stuff."  
"Right well... You'd be prefect for it. Oh don't look so shocked what are ya fucking blind kid? Ya got your bags here right?"  
Cloud quickly nodds his head.  
"Cool, you'll stay in a guest room for tonight while I get your Honey Daddies ready. There's no way that they'd say no this time."  
Cloud missed the plural in his statement because he was too shocked by the fact that apparently he was perfect to be one of the most desirable people in all of Midgar.  
Honey Babies were on magazines , advertisements and were seen as attractive not only because of their looks but who they got to sleep with. There must be some sort of mix-up or something, Cloud didn't know how that could even happen though.  
Cloud was lead down a hallway and they let him into a room that apparently isn't used for any services and is just a general guest room. He had been explained to on the way that they'd be moving him to the Honey Baby Nursery or the Mansion where all the Honey Babies lived. Cloud had signed a contract after reading through it. He basically kept most of the money which was a surprise. Apparently the contract is drafted in a way that the taxes Shinra doesn't have to pay goes to The Don as payment and every Honey Daddy brought in by the attraction to a Honey Baby means millions for The Don.  
The contract stated that Cloud could only sleep with his Honey Daddy or HD unless permission was granted otherwise. The Don was fully aware that Cloud had only been seventeen years old but disregarded it and waved his hand in the air saying that Cloud would be eighteen in a couple of months when he looked up his file. Cloud had to keep up a certain image and would be sent to go get some designer clothing with a new card that has money directly from his HD. Cloud could also say no to sleeping with him and could declare personal days when needed. Cloud had to sign a commerical contract stating that he must do a minimum of five campaigns a year promoting the Honey Baby brand. He didn't have to do soft core porn or porn period, it was just, hold this bottle of wine with the Honey Baby logo on it and look sexy while you do it. Or , wear these commerical Honey Baby pajamas and look sexy while doing it. Then he had to attract outside campaigns. If he makes it to the top of the rankings he gets crowned the Honey Babe and gets monetary bonuses and a huge PR push for endorsements.  
He had no idea how he'd explain it to his most likely going to be pissed mother. He could have gone home but he rather not watch his mother die. With this he'd send her a little more money than expected to ensure that she gets the medicine that she needs. He doesn't care that she'll be mad, he just wants to take care of her.  
\---------  
Cloud didn't feel comfortable changing in the room so he just slept in the clothes he came in he didn't want it to be that there were hidden cameras somewhere.  
Cloud woke up to find breakfast sitting by his bed. He ate the toast , eggs and bacon but refused to drink it since he was still scared of something suspicious going on.  
The Don had a huge smile on his face when he walked out of the guest room carrying all he owns in two bags. He informed Cloud that he had just made him millions within seconds and that he was a gift to this company. Cloud's face got all red and he muttered a "oh" and quickly got into the limo. The limo ride lasted about thirty minutes but it felt like hours. The limo was bright yellow and the seats were an off white. He thought that they were going to the Mansion but instead they pulled up into Pretiosa Mall. They had driven into the main district where all the high end stores and expensive condos were.  
Cloud got out of the extremely long vehicle giving a sheepish nod to the driver who opened the door for him. His driver explained that he was to go shopping for new clothes and handed him a black card.

A fucking black card.

Not just any black card.

A Black Card.

Only multi millionaires had Black Cards.

Who the hell was his HD; He had to be a First Class Soldier.

The driver smiled at the country boy marveling at a card he never thought that he'd get to hold and took pleasure in watching his jaw drop when he was told that he's the only Honey Baby with one. 

Cloud almost floated into the mall. He walked straight into the flag store for a brand named Aurum. They were the high end brand. The Don had advised him to utilize that he was a bit a feminine and that he should lean on that moreso than his masculinity.

He made a beeline , no pun intended, to the first clothing rack that he saw. He picked up a baby pastel blue sweater and a few other items. He got a few new crop tops for men that were popular right now and new fitted pre ripped jeans.  
Cloud watched the cash register's number go higher and higher. He watched anxious but he quickly reminded himself that he had plenty of money for this and it's what he was supposed to be doing. The total added up to 508,789 Gil. For three sweaters, five pairs of jeans and a few crop tops. He was horrified but handed over the Black Card. It went through, of course.  
Next he walked over to the department store to make shopping a bit easier. He picked up some pastel blue canvas sneakers, one pair that went up to his ankle and the other a high top pair. He also grabbed a few pairs of boots and some new dress shoes. He grabbed a few bottles of foundation from a celebrity brand and a lip moisturizer that was border line a lip gloss but was branded towards men. Mascara was also thrown into the basket. He had long and full eyelashes but sometimes on camera they'd get lost. So he grabbed a light brown mascara to darken them a bit while still appearing natural.  
The underwear was on sale so he grabbed a few cotton and a few silk. The sportswear was also on sale and even though he'll never be a SOLDIER he still wanted to get in a daily or at least weekly work out. Then he picked up a few baby blue and gold suitcases of various sizes. He stocked up on some more clothes too and got some pajamas.  
By the time that he was done he had spent around 800,900 gil at the department store. His driver helped him load the bags into limo. The driver informed him that it'd take about an hour to get to the mansion from their location. Cloud took that time to sort through everything that he bought and put everything away into suitcases to make it easier to move things in and to unpack into his new room.  
The time had flown by and by the time that he was done the driver informed him that they were down the road from the Honey Baby Nursery or Mansion. He preferred calling it The Honey Baby Mansion, nursery just sounded...off.  
Cloud looked out the window to see the beautiful trees, yes trees in Midgar. The road came to an end that was in the form of a roundabout. Cloud's jaw dropped once again at the sight of the large white and gold mansion and the gold bee with water spouting out of its stinger in the middle of the beautiful fountain in the middle of the roundabout. They pulled up in front of the huge columns that sat on the front porch after driving thorough the huge golden gates with permission having been granted to them twice, once at the beginning of the road and once at the main gate.  
His driver opened the door for him once more and a few servants rushed out and grabbed his bags informing him that he'd be seeing them once more in his room and if he had preferences for how he unpacked his belongings. Cloud quickly shook his head and offered to do it himself but settled on allowing them to just unpack in whatever way was convenient for them.  
Cloud walked into the mansion and was doing a good job at playing it cool. He most definitely wasn't in awe of the large entrance consisting of a gaint chandelier with two grand staircases and a large hallway leading to what seemed like all the common areas in front of him. As he looked around , three Honey Babies on the floor above him looking out to the grand entrance watched him.

"He's cute!" A high pitched voice squeaked out.

"He's not that cute."

"You'd do him." A deeper voice said. 

"Only to prove a point that I'm cuter."

"You're just worried about not being the next Honey Babe." The feminine voice teased. 

"Dia shut up."

Dia did a faux offended gasp. 

"Let's go introduce ourselves." 

\-------------

Cloud brushed his hand on the fancy table by the left staircase and turned around to be startled and met with three new faces. One was a tan girl with blonde hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a ruffled pink floral mini skirt and a cream off the shoulder knit sweater. Another was around Cloud's height. He had dark green hair and hazel eyes with olive skin. He was wearing a grey muscle crop top , much like the ones Cloud just bought and black jeans and slippers. The last one was tall ,with black hair and pale skin and all black lounge wear. He recognized them from a few ads. They most definitely were other Honey Babies.  
"Hey" Cloud said, keeping his cool. In case they were some sort of mean clique Cloud needed to make sure that he came off aloof and confident. He had to learn that the hard way growing up. Besides Cloud was allowed to beat himself up but that doesn't mean that anybody else is allowed to.

"Hiya! What's your name?" The blonde girl asked. 

"...Cloud, Cloud Strife. I'm new here clearly."

" Aw you're so cute! So of course you have a cute name too!" She practically yelled and jumped up and down a bit. " I'm Dia, the tall one is from Wutai his name's Hitori, and then the green one who wants to wear your skin is Autumn. "

Autumn yelled out a "hey!" but was promptly ignored. 

"Do you know where your room is?" Hitori asked. Cloud was startled by how smooth his voice was. It was like an expensive french pressed coffee. 

"Um... I think that they said room 222."

Autumn pushed his two friends out the way, "room 222?"

Cloud paused, "uh yea."

"Room 222"

Cloud nodded his head.

"22 fucking 2?"

Dia interrupted, "Cloud what he's trying to say is that you got the deluxe loft. We all have lofts but yours is basically a house within a house. Who the hell is your Honey Daddy?"

Before Cloud could tell them that he didn't know, Cloud was informed that his room was already finished. He was quickly escorted there since apparently his Honey Daddy was down the road and would be taking the personal elevator up to Cloud's wing. His new friends (?) went back to their rooms which were all apparently located in the same wing. So their HD's shared an elevator. Cloud walked in while being explained how to tap in with his card key. He was lead into a small entry way. It was a small hallway with a large screen on one side and a large shoe shelf on the other.  
"This is where your Honey Daddy will check in. This is a touch screen. Basically he'll tap his card to enter the main door and then he'll tap in again on this pad. This screen shows whether are not you are home or if you are open to visitation. You can also leave messages for them as they can for you. You can also make a shopping list of things you want to get picked up for you. This also gives us a heads up if you are entertaining or are in need of cleaning services. You also can send in a request for a small dosage of cure for... obvious reasons. Also if anything for your "entertainment" needs to be ordered you need to order it from here. Honey Daddies cannot enter your apartment without your permission. So once you get notified of him waiting out in this hallway , you have to allow them access by confriming entry on the screen inside. "

Cloud nodded his head taking in all the information.

"Go ahead and take your card again on your apartment door pad."

Cloud went ahead and did as he was told and walked into what felt like a dream. Overnight, Cloud's loft had been personalized. Baby blue and gold accents were all over the apartment. It was like something out of a movie.  
"You live in our deluxe loft. It has two floors, both much larger than our other spaces. The second floor consist of your master bedroomroom and a luxury master bath with an indoor hot tub and steam room. You also have a two story walk in closet. This main floor consist of your full kitchen, four bedrooms, two full bathrooms and one half bath, and your dinning room, living room, and an "entertainment" room in case you rather not have them in your personal bedroom. "

This place was bigger than Cloud's house back home. 

This place was bigger than a damn house.

Cloud stammered out a thank you when he was told that his bedroom was fully supplied with Honey Baby products. The staff member quickly left informing him of his Honey Daddy's arrival. Cloud ran upstairs to change into his new clothes and put down his hair from his usual spikes and braid combo as The Don suggested. He put on his new baby blue crop top and a washed out pair of grey jeans and slipped on his new Honey Baby slippers that were also baby blue with the golden bee dripping in honey emblem on it. The part where his feet slipped in had his name is gold cursive on them.

Cloud ran back downstairs when he heard the ping indicating an arrival. The ping went off four times which caused him to get anxious. His Honey Daddy seems like the hard ass type. He was definitely a first.  
Cloud quickly stammered out a "coming!" and ran to manually open the door since he was a country boy after all, he completely forgot that he could electronically allow access for them to open it themselves.  
He swung open the door and almost fainted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the babies look up "Will Smith crop top" to understand what a crop top for men is. They were popular in the 80s/90s.


	2. Meeting the HDs

"Si-sir!" By default Cloud went into a salute exactly like how he was trained to do for three years now. The General Sephiroth was standing at his doorstep. The general cooly walked in and told him to be "at ease".  
Cloud breathed and began to collect himself until he realized that the rest of the Shrine Trinity was walking in right behind him and the new First , Zack Fair, was strolling in right behind. Speaking of Zack Fair , Zack suddenly picked Cloud up, who yelped, and Zack began gushing over how Cloud was "so tiny" and "so cute". Cloud was dangling in the air being crushed to death until Angeal, the Angeal, called for the "puppy" to put him down. Zack pouted and put Cloud back onto his own two feet.

Angeal laughed softly and turned to Cloud after petting Zack's head. "I'm sorry he's a bit overwhelming but he means the best, really. Please allow us to introduce ourselves."

As if they need introducing. 

Apparently Genesis agreed because he scoffed.

"I'm First Lieutenant Angeal Hewley. This here is First Lieutenant Genesis Rhapsodos. The hyper one is First Class Zachary Fair or Zack. And then the silver one is General Sephiroth."

Cloud stood in amazement and confusion. The General ,his second in commands and then a First Class solider. He didn't want to look too starstruck though.

"So you must be an ex-infantryman then? The way you saluted in perfect form." Genesis mused while looking around the apartment.

Cloud nodded his head. "So which one of you is my...HD?" Cloud still couldn't say "Honey Daddy" aloud. 

"Um they didn't tell you?" Zack asked a bit puzzled. 

"Nu uh" , Angeal smiled to himself , a country boy.

"Uh Cloud, it's all of us? That's why you have such a nice apartment your racking in a portion of salaries made by the richest men in Shinra." Zack didn't know how to react to Cloud suddenly freezing. He looked around to his three other, yes three other, boyfriends for help.  
"Cloud don't feel pressured into anything, we just need you for events and some companionship outside of Shinra for our downtime. You don't have to sleep with anyone or anything. Not to mention the only reason why we haven't tested The Don a new one is because you'll be eighteen a month or so. And honestly we won't give you any events to do until then."  
"Unless you want to of course." A statement which earned a slap on the back of Genesis' head.  
"Woah , you're loft is cooler than ours back at the tower. It's even better than Sephiroth's. But to be fair Sephiroth's is friggin awesome too." Zack ran about the loft getting a better look than Cloud has gotten so far. Zack ran to go play a game on the computer inside on Cloud's refrigerator door at one point. Angeal and Genesis wandered off onto Cloud's large balcony. They were discussing what flowers they could get Cloud to start a small garden and wondered if they should get some produce too with the assumption that Cloud would have farming experience. He does.  
Cloud was then left alone with the intimidating general. General Sephiroth had only turned twenty years old this year and yet he won an entire war and is known as the best swordsman in the world.

Cloud still couldn't figure out how to do his taxes.

Sephiroth sat on Cloud's couch and looked around himself. Cloud then took it upon himself to sit beside him. He's supposed to be hosting them and making them comfortable ...right?  
Finally Cloud mustered up the courage to speak, "So, um, how was the drive here?"  
Sephiroth finally stopped looking around and turned to his attention to a now even more nervous than before Cloud. Based off of his file Cloud was about eighteen years old, from the country side. His mother was sick and his father's status was pronounced dead due to him not appearing for years. Sephiroth wasnt sure if looking into his private records was an entirely good idea but he wants to make sure he knew what he was dealing with. He was even more adorable in person.  
"It was fine, you're located twenty minutes away from the Shrina Tower. We've traveled longer."

"Oh" , Cloud nodded his head. " Well, if it's okay can you guys log in your favorite things? There's an app apparently that's connected to that screen outside. Not that I don't wanna find out on my own or anything! It's just easier for everyone since there's four of you and I just wanted to make I do a good job ya know?" Cloud tucked his hair behind his ear, completely unused to having his hair unspiked.  
Sephiroth nodded his head. He was never very good at socializing. Sephiroth tired to be conscious of his demeanor, worried about scaring off the blonde. 

"Have you eaten?" Sephiroth asked which triggered the fact that Cloud hadn't had lunch yet.

"I had breakfast this morning but I haven't had lunch yet."

"Do you mind if I use your kitchen?" 

"Go right ahead." Cloud gestured towards the kitchen a bit excited to see what was about to happen. 

The fridge had already been stocked with food requested by the four men and a few imported Nibelheim delicacies. 

Sephiroth took out the ingredients to make a Wutaian dish called Seafood Ramen and swatted at Zack to move out of his way and make some rice in Cloud's rice cooker.  
Cloud asked what he could do to help but Sephiroth just told him to wait in the living room and to relax.  
So he went back and reclined on the couch a bit overwhelmed with everything that was going on. His mother would never, ever , believe this.  
Angeal and Genesis came back from outside and sat down in the living room with Cloud. Angeal asked Cloud what he knew about pumpkins and various vegetables, explaining that Cloud could grow a nice garden outside with their help if he would like. Cloud perked up and said that he would love that. The two were about four years older than him but they just seemed so ... grown up. Genesis reassured him that Cloud was just a teenager and when he's twenty-two he'll realize just how immature that they actually are.  
Then Zack bounced in and flopped down next to Cloud. "Hey Cloudy, you play any video games?"

"Yea! How come?"

" I mean we can play from time to time right?"

'Duh' Cloud blushed a little as he thought to himself and he quickly nodded. Zack was about a year older than Cloud but he acted like a hyperactive ten year old.

"Dammit Cloudy you're adorable ya know that? Where are you from again?"

"Nibelheim"

"I knew that you were country as hell but Gaia."

"And where are you from exactly?" Cloud said slightly amused, Zack slipped into an accent too sometimes. He definitely isn't from here.

"Oh me ?Gongaga !"Zack declared proudly.cloud bursted into a fit of laughter. "Wha- what? What's so funny about Gongaga?"

"Oh, maybe because you're just as much of a backwater, mountain climbing hick as he is?" Genesis drawled out.

"Excuse me? You're from fucking Banora jackass. Your family is filthy rich from selling apples. Apples. You lived on a farm." 

"In his defense it was a fancy farm." Angeal teased. 

Genesis then went into a rant about how his family was still above the impoverished hicks that he was surrounded by and Angeal quickly reminded him that he's been underneath one of those "impoverished hicks" in several comprising positions . Genesis huffed and declared everyone in the room to be a bunch of mountain goats.

"Hey I may be a mountain goat but sofar I've come to learn that I make millions of dollars by sitting on my ass and getting dressed up for fancy parties." Cloud retorted. And Zack finger snapped at Genesis in approval of Cloud's defense. 

"Yeah whatever a smart mountain goat is still a mountain goat go farm natural materia or potatoes or something."

"Genesis you came to Midgar with a strong country accent, slipping in and out of Banora's native tounge , not too long ago. Also dinner is ready." Sephiroth smirked at Genesis who brushed past him in a huff. He knew that this was Genesis's odd way of bonding with their new country friend. 

Sephiroth informs Cloud that he'd serve him and asked if he's ever had Wutaian food before. He wasnt surprised when he shook his head no.  
Sephiroth explained what the food was and showed Cloud how to use chopsticks. He went ahead and used a napkin and a rubber band to make makeshift training chopsticks for the blonde. Cloud blushed throughout his whole meal. He struggled a bit with the chopsticks for one, and then he was overwhelmed with the fact that the General Sephiroth had made him lunch and served it to him. And the food tasted like absolute heaven.  
Cloud asked how he learned how to cook and Sephiroth explained that he felt an odd connection to the locals while at war and that he learned a lot from the elders there.

"So they were welcoming to you?"

"Yes actually, I made sure that their local women and children were safe and was strict on my soldiers to only act in times of battle. They were also meant to avoid any civilian causalities. There was only one incident to my knowledge involving a soldier attacking a young girl, he was promptly dishonorably discharged and imprisoned short after for crimes of betrayal of a generals reasonable order, child endangerment and a few others. War is barbaric enough , we don't need any added causalities."

Cloud nodded his head thinking for a moment. He had been wondering why there hadn't been more "war like" stories out of Wutai other than solider death count and the occasional civilian causality. Honestly he wouldn't want to pull any nonsense with Sephiroth watching his every love either. 

Cloud quickly remembered what he had read in the Honey Baby Handbook or the HBH last night and got up to serve them drinks. Offering whatever alcohol was there and various other non-alcoholic drinks. He wasn't sure if he was doing a very good job but to be fair to himself he wasn't exactly expecting the Shinra Trinity and Shinra's child prodigy to be who he was meant to entertain.

Everyone finally settled down and ate in the living room. Some sort of detective show was playing on the tv and Cloud found it entertaining to hear Sephiroth poke holes into the storyline and explain how it would actually work in real life. Zack made himself comfortable and he ate some of the spicy snacks from Cloud's kitchen on the floor. Angeal and Genesis sat on a loveseat, with Genesis resting his legs on Angeal's lap. 

It was all so oddly domestic for a group of men trained to kill. 

"So Cloud, what do you plan on doing in your free time?" Angeal asked in the middle of a commerical break.

"Honestly I dunno. I have access to a private gym apparently, so probably that. I'll probably take some cooking classes too. They offer them downstairs in the main kitchen a few times a week.Are y'all gonna be coming down here at the same time?"

Sephiroth shook his head, "For the most part no. Our schedules are awkwardly packed , you'll mostly be seeing Zack to be honest." 

Genesis gave Cloud a sympathetic look, " And we are so sorry. You can always slip some liquid sleep materia in his overly sugared and process drink." 

"Hey !" Zack threw the nearest pillow at his superior and then went on a rant about how he "can be chill when he feels like it" and that Genesis is "just jealous because everyone likes him more than the Loveless loving freak". 

This resulted in a back and forth banter that lasted God knows how long. But all Cloud knew was that his stomach hurt from laughing so much.


	3. C.R.E.A.M

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud gets used to his new life fairly quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote so much about food in this chapter that mid way through writing it I ordered some Japanese food even though I told myself not to spend any money R.I.P.

Honestly, Cloud could get used to this. Cloud had sent his mother about five hundred thousand gil, express, the other day. She had called asking him if he killed the President of Shinra and stole some gil out of a safe and he had to explain to her exactly what he had been up to. Oddly enough she didn't take the first train into Midgar and drag Cloud by the tip of his nose back to Nibelheim. She just went quiet and mumbled something about "what the lifestream meant" and then thanked him for the money. His mother immediately paid the bills and scheduled her appointment in the best hospital in Midgar. She'll be coming to stay with Cloud in a month or so. She had the local doctor who is affiliated with said hospital check her vitals and other medical nonsense. They said her sickness was treatable but untreated will result in death. Cloud told her to let him know if she ever needed more money and since his housing is free and his food is paid for by Sephiroth personally, he had plenty of money to ensure his mother would be alright.

It's amazing how much life can change with one choice.

Right now Cloud was laying in bed watching television and eating take out from some expensive Wutai restaurant. He became addicted to the stuff.

Cloud took a bite out of his dumpling quickly before the sauce dripped onto the bed sheets. He felt weird though. He no longer has to wake up at three hundred hours to run drills in the rain. He didn't have to deal with the stench of the dead whenever they sent out infantrymen to clean up the aftermath of war. No more missions that last serval days out in the wild and the cold. He got to sleep in, buy whatever clothes he wanted, whatever food he wanted, and most importantly was able to take care of his mother. 

The four HDs he had were just a plus.

It had been a week since he first met them. None of them have had the time to come visit him, but Angeal does make sure to ask if he's all set and Zack likes to send him funny pictures and videos throughout the day on his PHS. 

Speaking of the devil , Cloud's phone suddenly rang and he lazily rolled over his silk baby blue bed sheets to pick it up.

"Hello?" Cloud cleared his throat as it was the first time he spoke the whole day.

"Hey Cloudy! Are ya busy?I got a new game on my way back to the tower and figured you might wanna play it with me."

"Zack literally the only thing I have to do is to talk to you people."

"What do you mean you people?"

"You in denial hicks is you people."

"Seph isn't a hick! ... I think ...I'm pretty sure he's from Midgar he's been with Shinra his whole life."

"Just come over and bring food."

"I can hear you chewing."

"I have a fast metabolism."

Zack laughed and told him he'd pick up some fried Gongaga food on his way before hanging up.

"Alright how do I prepare for a visit again?" Cloud thought aloud to himself. He looked for his handbook and when reading it he quickly realized that it was detailing how to get ready for something more than fried Chocobo and video games. He kept searching and eventually found a passage detailing how to get ready for a simple diner date at home.

Cloud went downstairs and lit a few scented candles that had a nice autumn smell. It was still summer but autumn just smelled more cosy. He grabbed some plates from the kitchen and sat them down on his coffee table that was in-between the couch and the flat screen TV on the wall. A bunch of pillows got laid out between the couch and the coffee table , with some blankets set aside close by. Cloud honestly loved the whole gold, baby blue and white theme going on but he did wish there was some black in his apartment too. ' I'll just go shopping for home stuff later' he thought to himself. 

He ran to look at his baby blue notebook that was fluffy on the outside with the gold Honey Baby logo in the middle. There had all his notes on the four solider men. Zack had mentioned what his favorite beer was so Cloud made sure to order some after their first visit. He had also gotten the other three's favorite wines and everyone's favorite snacks. Cloud wasn't sure if he should get some information from their fan websites since they may not be accurate and he didn't want to freak them out by having them think that he was some deranged fanboy. So he'd either ask or just pay attention to things that they had said or done. 

Cloud double checked that the beer had been put in the fridge and then checked to see how much vanilla ice cream he had left so that he could make Zack a Nibelheim Dirty Beer Float later. 

In the middle of Cloud cleaning the living room and the bathroom for the fifth time that hour Zack rang for entry and Cloud buzzed him in. 

Zack in all his way too tall glory came in with that huge smile that seems to permanently be on his face. The entire room shifted into that overwhelming jovial vibe that he had and immediately put a smile on Cloud's face.

"Are you ready to get constipated for the next three days cause I am!"

Cloud immediately busted out laughing taking the bags away from him to set them down on the coffee table.

"Zack, ew."

"What? You'll be asleep too for the next three days anyway so it's not like it matters. " 

Cloud chuckled and sat on the floor as Zack took off his boots and joined him. Cloud thankfully but the gaming system right on the table so they wouldn't have to get up and down to change games or deal with the cord to the controllers not being long enough. 

Cloud served Zack first, as per protocol, and then served himself. It was just as Cloud expected. Fried chocobo, fried fish, and slow cooked vegetables with mash potatoes. 

Zack was right Cloud was gonna be in a food coma for a bit.

The Gongagan put the new racing game in the gaming system and started to drown his food in hot sauce along side his new Nibel friend. It was nice having someone with a similar culture to be around. Banora was country too, but they ate a lot of baked stuff moreso than fried. Cloud broke the bones and ate the food in a way that made him feel right at home. He wrote letters home often, but he was too scared to go home when he knew that he broke his parents very anti-shinra heart. When he ran away to join the military his mother didn't eat for months. His father had to push her to at least have a small meal from time to time. He never understood why his parents disliked Shinra so much anyway. 

Cloud noticed Zack had zoned out while looking at him and he asked with mouth full of Chocobo meat that just got removed off the bone within his mouth what the deal was.

Zack smiled and shook his head, "It's just nice ya know. Having someone you can relate to in the big city. When I first came here I was the hyper kid who talked funny. Now I'm the first class solider with a standard city accent. Sometimes it feels like the only way to be successful is to take away who you are. It kinda sucks to be honest but I can't complain too much. I get paid a million gil a year and that's just my standard salary. I get even more based off of missions and bonuses. There's people under the plate that don't eat cause they don't wanna spend twenty gil on food out of the fear of not having any money for their bills." 

Cloud thought to himself for a moment before responding, " That's true, but it doesn't mean you're not allowed to complain about your issues either. You may not have issues in one area in comparison to others ,thankfully ,but that doesn't mean that you don't have any problems at all. I only took this job to help out my mom since she's sick, and money already made it possible to allow her to live. But that doesn't mean that she or I can't complain about other stuff. We're still grateful for the good stuff but there still can be bad stuff. Ya know?"

Angeal is going to love Cloud. Both of them have this weird wisdom thing going on that Zack can only come up with when in a very tiring situation and he wants to cheer someone else up. Zack wiped some food off of Cloud's face with a napkin, surprising him a bit but Cloud just kept customizing his car in the game. Genesis is oddly domestic so he'll like taking care of Cloud. Especially since he's so cute when he gets shy about it. Sephiroth may be afraid to interact with Cloud. Every now and then they'll catch Sephiroth dehumanizing himself and it'll scare them. They are always worried about him going off the deep end. Sephiroth was always worried about not picking up on certain social queues due to his lack of social experience outside of being a human weapon. He just never learned how to be vulnerable with others and how others are vulnerable outside of seeking asylum or insisting that they don't know anything. But once Cloud gets to know him he'll see the big softy Sephiroth actually is. Zack is excited for all the little moments of Cloud seeing the general of the most powerful military in the world being like a confused cat who wants someone to pet him but just didn't know how to ask.

Watching the two of them cuddle would be the cutest thing.

The camera roll on his PHS is in for it.

Cloud had won the first ten rounds of their racing game. Zack kept blaming it on Cloud using him being adorable to distract him and Cloud insisted that he was literally just existing and that Zack simple sucked. 

"Whatever man where's the booze?" Zack said finally giving up while Cloud changed the tv to regular cable. 

"I'll make you a Nibel Dirty Beer Float hold up."

"Nibel what-a-whatta?" 

Cloud chuckled and ran into the kitchen, "Just hold on!"

Zack went ahead and sent a text to their group chat "Teenage Mutant Super Soilders", named by yours truly, which is no longer entirely accurate now that three out of four of them no longer identify as teenagers but instead young adults, with Zack following only a year behind. 

Zack: Cloud's making me a special Nibel drink, has Cloud made you guys a special Nibel drink I think not.

Angeal: Zachary you are acting like you don't have to come home eventually. 

Zack: I don't have to. We have personal rooms here remember I can move in with cloudy-kins forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever Ander evrr and everr and ever n ever 

Genesis: So Cloud has gotten either high or drunk to deal with you yes?

Zack: You think a Nibel can get drunk? Their blood is 98% alcohol.

Genesis: So the only way out for this poor boy is death then? Tell him mixing poison with silence is an easy way to die, you don't even feel it.

Sephiroth: Absolutely not.

Zack: Why is it that you only respond when you want to say no to us doing something.

Angeal: Because Sephiroth is the only thing that keeps you two from commiting absolute stupidity. 

Zack: I'm not stupid.

Genesis: You're more of a liar apparently.

Zack: Loveless is dumb and overrated and goes on for way too long.

Genesis: I have clearance to where you live.

Angeal: You can't kill another First Genesis.

Genesis: I absolutely can.

Sephiroth: You absolutely cannot.

Zack looked up when he heard the clang of a beer glass hit the table. Cloud had made them both drinks and they look amazing. Zack immediately picked up his glass and took a sip.

...bless the Nibel.

A while later Zack had a few but he couldn't get drunk due to his high mako levels and he was full at this point. Cloud on the other hand had downed about seven of them now and isn't even tipsy. Zack chuckled softly to himself thinking back to Genesis's naviety about Cloud's alcohol tolerance. The kid may be short and tiny but he was still a Nibel.

Cloud had cozied up to Zack's side with Zack's arm around him under a couple of blankets on the couch. They were watching a fantasy movie and Cloud had made them popcorn in his old school popcorn machine that was tucked in the corner. He had thought that it was for decoration but upon Zack's closer look there was a cabinet within it holding the kernels, different seasons, and manual.

Cloud for the first time ever felt comfortable around someone his age. Especially a guy his age. The smell of Zack's scented cinnamon spice Shinra issued body wash and hair products along with the candles and the soft comforting atmosphere and Zack's body heat lead to Cloud falling asleep. 

He could get used to this.


	4. Dammit Ma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud's ma comes and does ma things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so everyone knows, I won't be using the classist/anti Appalachian hillbilly trope in this. The main characters are just people who happen to not be born in the city. They make fun of the sterotypes with one another but that's as far as it goes. They aren't "less cultured" or anything they just come from a different place. Magazines, cellphones and television still exist in the countryside. 
> 
> The premise of this is also a less rapey take on the Playboy Bunny mansion with an escorting service provided strictly to one small demographic. 
> 
> I just wanted to make it clear where I was coming from with all of this!

Alright now Cloud was just bored. Well off, but bored. But he supposed that that was better than being poor and sad. He got paid every week but apart of the job description is for him to be running around doing photoshoots and whatever nonsense. But since he wasn't eighteen yet The Don wanted him to wait for legal reasons. He didn't want it getting out that he had someone underaged working for him. Apparently for the hive that was easier to get away with but knowing what Cloud knows about the hive he rather not think of something that traumatic in this moment in time. 

He was sitting in his favorite cafe again. He used to have really good , freshly roasted coffee at home all the time. His mother would tease him saying that that was the reason as to why he never grew any taller. Cloud would always come back with "I'm average height!" and kept drinking his coffee anyway. 

But when he moved to the city he could only afford instant coffee. He wondered if city folk knew that they were being ripped off and that it didn't cost all that much to farm coffee beans in any place on Gaia and neither did the packaging. The mark up was absurd. 

Thankfully with his new salary he could pay for said mark-up. 

His mother had been living in the loft for about a month now but she was resting at home for the moment and kicked him out of his own loft. She told him that he was breathing on her too much and that he needed to go live for a bit. It was her way of saying that she wanted him to focus on himself a little bit. 

The doctor had started giving her medications and informed Cloud that he should have where admitted to the hospital.  
But he had a group call with his HDs that may or may not have consisted of Genesis and Zack play fighting the whole time, as Angeal tried to play peace maker and Sephiroth occasionally speaking just to say "absolutely not" , "no", and the most important part that , "Do not admit your mother to the regular hospital, I will assign her a doctor I personally trust who is more acclaimed than the hospital itself. She'll be safer in your loft." 

And so here we are. They did a thorough clean up of one of the guest rooms just to be safe. They set up any equipment that they need, materia and other various medications. The doctor Sephiroth has gotten wasn't under Shinra for some reason. She was nice though, she stayed in the room next to his mother's and did the work of a house caretaker and a doctor. Apparently she wanted to provide this unique service to women in need and built the desire from being a nursing assistant. 

Cloud asked over and over again if they'd be okay with his mother being there and all four of them of course said yes over and over again. 

He was just happy to see some color return to his mother's cheeks.  
He was also happy that she'd be here for his eighteenth birthday.  
He was also horrified because he'd have to fake like he hasn't been drinking underaged for like a year now.

Sephiroth and Angeal gave him enough scolding for that. Never again did he want to have another three hour video call lecture from two of the most intimidating men in the world. He tried using the "But I'm country" excuse but Angeal wasn't having it.

His PHS vibrated suddenly and he picked it up see a message from Sephiroth.

Sephiroth: Cloud? If your mother isn't feeling too unwell I'd like to come and make dinner.

You know, it being that Cloud is supposed to be at constant availability and service to these men it's a bit funny how they always ask if it's okay to do so. But Cloud takes that as a blessing. 

Cloud: Sure, just don't talk about Shinra too much. My mom's not really a fan. Not that you do anyway though.

Sephiroth: I'll change from my uniform at home first then.

Cloud finished the rest of his coffee and cleaned up his table before calling his driver who was a street or so away to pick him up. 

In not too long Cloud was walking down the long hallway to his room/loft... thing. He still wasn't sure how to talk about that. Suddenly the door to his left opened and a turk with long black hair stepped out of apparently that green haired kid Autumn's room... loft. 

The dude looked Wutai so he must of been the one that everyone kept saying would replace the legacy of the Wutai turk that disappeared a couple decades ago. He walked right past Cloud and went into the elevator. 

It took Autumn a second to notice that Cloud was even there. 

"Oh! Cloud! " 

"...hey."

"Whatcha up to?" Autumn leaned against his door frame a bit.

"Nothing actually, I've just be taking care of my mom. She's been sick so she's been getting treatment."

Autumn immediately looked concerned and unfolded his arms, "Oh crap is she gonna be alright?"

Cloud waved his hands a bit, "Yeah no she'll be alright , hopefully, they said she'll be fine as long as she gets treatment, which she is so...yeah."

"That's great! I mean not that she's sick but that she's getting help. If you guys need anything you can always knock on one of our doors. I dunno how old your mom is but if she needs girly stuff Dia has enough to help a small village in the middle of Gaia somewhere. "

Cloud nodded his head and said thanks before going into his loft. He doesn't think that any of them have figured out who his HDs are since the men, although big, move as quiet as the night. 

Which is why Cloud jumped in horror midway through taking off his shoes in the mini hallway where his screen his. 

"Sephiroth what in the hell!" Cloud harshly whispered out still clutching his chest from the sudden horror. 

The corners of Sephiroth's mouth twitched a bit and he lifted his hands to show some grocery bags that he brought with him. 

Cloud playfully punched his chest and opened the door.

Cloud was about to ask how Sephiroth's day was until he was forced to pause for a moment, "Ma, what are you doing out of bed?" 

His mother stopped waddling around for a moment and turned to look at the two boys. Sephiroth was shocked to see that Cloud's mother was literally just a female version of her son. Or Cloud the male version. She was shorter than Cloud by a few inches but Cloud truly is his mother's son. 

"Choco baby I was sick of sitting in bed, besides the doctor said I should walk around from time to time." 

Cloud quickly walked over to his mother and had her lean on his shoulder, "Yes but with supervision ya nitwit."

Cloud's mother meekly yelled out a "Hey !" 

"Ma you could have knocked on her door asked her to walk you around." 

"She ain't even here!"

"What?" Cloud yelled out expecting it to be a lie , glancing over at the doctor's door.

"I told her you were here and that she could go see her family for awhile."

"And you did that why?" He said with the sudden urge to strangle.

"Because she needed some time to herself!" His mother weakly yelled back as if she was staying the obvious.

"Ma! Why didn't you just call me and have me come home ? I wasn't doin jack shit whaddya tryin' to do die and take me with you? Ya nut?"

They bickered back and forth for bit. Sephiroth was just amused with how similar they were and just how country Cloud's accent gets when talking to his mom. That Nibel accent is super watered down in his day to day speach. It's apparent but , soft. Right now though Cloud was literally going in and out of Nibel and the standard language, and the standard language had a strong accent. 

His mother had been mid speech before she finally realized who else was in the room. The two young men thought that it'd finally be the moment she freaked out about the general of the organization she hates.

But instead she just looked at him like he was a ghost and walked slowly up to him. She placed a hand on Sephiroth's cheek , which startled him so much that he didn't really know how to respond. She caressed his cheek a bit and looked at every feature on his face. 

"You look just like him." She softly whispered. Cloud couldn't pick up on it but with Sephiroth's soldier hearing and the fact that she was pretty close to him right now , albeit on her tiptoes.

Sephiroth cocked his head a bit confused and Cloud's mother finally snapped out of it. 

"Oh I'm sorry. It's just...you remind me of an old friend." She smiled sadly to herself before collecting herself. "Hi! I'm Cloud's mother , Claudia Strife. It's nice to meet you! Cloud told me you're the reason why I got my at home doctor. I'm thankful. " 

Sephiroth was stunned for a second but then nodded his head and introduced himself. "I'll be making dinner tonight if you don't mind. I've brought ingredients for the main dinner and also a light soup for you if you aren't up to beef and rice currently. "

"Oh! I'll take a little bit of the actual dinner but the soup sounds good if you don't mind? I heard from Cloud that you cook a lot of food from Wutai yes?"

He mused at the switch in dialect Claudia made within just one moment. In fact her accent was oddly non-existent. 

Sephiroth nodded his head and agreed to let her oversee him cooking in the kitchen to learn how to make the dishes. Sephiroth reassured Cloud that if his mother were to suddenly loose her footing that no one in this world would have faster reflexes than him.

And he wasn't exactly lying.

Cloud's mother had been taking a medication that tended to make her dizzy and a bit nauseous as a side effect. She also has to be on a watered down cure materia drip at night. So watching over her when she was walking around was important to do. 

Cloud set the dinner table and dragged the comfy one seater from the living room to the dinning room , which was open concept so that wasn't hard to do.

He sat in the chair closest to the wall and watched Sephiroth and his mother speak softly to each other in the kitchen. His mother sat at one of the bar stools and would occasionally get up to look at what Sephiroth was doing at the stove. 

Sephiroth wasnt sure how to feel. He's never been confronted with a motherly presence before. He's never met Angeal's mother, Genesis hated his, and Zack was too scared to go see his. 

Sephiroth never even had one.

Hearing her coo at him and say how impressed she was with his cooking skills, or the soft pets to his head and arm, or the way she'd laugh softly at his sarcasm...it was all just a lot.

When he went home later that night he explained to Angeal what had happened. For whatever reason everyone likes to collect at Sephiroth's place. It might be because he had a huge custom made bed and how clean his place always was. Since Sephiroth was the cook of the group, he always had a bunch of fresh food in the loft too. 

Angeal hummed in thought, and took a moment to think of the best way to address this. "Sephiroth, I think this may be a good thing."

Sephiroth did his classic cock of the head.

Angeal further explained, "You've never had a normal parental relationship. Hojo just laughs maniacally and calls himself your father and goes on some rant about "Shinra's monster". You could do well with having someone gentle and motherly taking care of you. It seems like she brought out a side of you that you're not really in touch with, for obvious reasons." 

Sephiroth was not surprised at his answer. Sephiroth was typically the objective, logical, thinker of the group that pointed out the obvious and in turned helped the others. But when it came to himself he just floundered.

" I suppose so."

Angeal patted his back, "How was Cloud?" 

"He was alright, I don't think he's been resting well since he's worried about his mother but he seems fine."

"You know Zack wanted to throw him a birthday party right? We'll have to do it at his place so that his mother can comfortably be there. It's next week so we've already ordered a few things to bring over."

Sephiroth motioned towards his closet, " Yes I know, I got him a few gifts. Hopefully he likes them."

Angeal chuckled to himself , Sephiroth really was soft deep down inside. "I'm sure that he will."


	5. 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud turns 18 and gets nervous about finally having to actually work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I've been really sick the past few weeks and I've been running around going to doctors and stuff and taking new medications so I haven't had the energy to write anything even when I was super anxious which is the point of me writing fanfiction again. Cause it distracts me from my anxiety disorder. I'll be okay and everything and it's nothing too serious but I'll be uploading slower than before! Thank you for all the comments and kudos and such.

Cloud didn't know how he felt about being eighteen.

Like what if the Don decided to take things a little too far now that he was legal?

Although, he is the only honey baby with four , scratch that , just in general more than one, HD. So many it had already started without him taking notice.

He tried going over the the Inn to see what the Honey Hive in the two floors of the basement were like but his friends all told him that it was a horrible idea. He still doesn't understand how the Hive is in operation if it really is that horrific but then again he is in Midgar. 

Oh yeah, Cloud has friends now apparently.

For once.

Autumn threw one of his chips at Cloud's forehead to catch his friend's wandering attention.   
They were all sitting in Cloud's apartment. Which had become their regular hang out spot. They surprised Cloud with gifts for his birthday , and edged on his mother to tell them embarrassing childhood stories and show them the baby pictures in her purse. Cloud of course groaned in horror at first, but quickly decided that bragging about how he's been cute his while life would shut them up.

It did.

Cloud picked up the chip that fell from is forehead to his shirt and ate it earning him a loud and overly dramatic "ew" from Autumn. 

His mother thankfully was doing better than before. She moved into an apartment close by. Cloud kept saying she could stay until she got better and went back home but she insisted that she didn't want to make things awkward and make it so that he could only meet the other men outside of the loft in order to be comfortable. All four of them insisted that they actually loved to walk in and see her there and hang out with her but she was pretty stubborn about it. Cloud now knows why Sephiroth gets so flustered when trying to get Cloud to do something as simple as drinking water regularly. 

Cloud went ahead and paid for a years worth of money in advance so that she wouldn't have to worry about it. The doctors said her treatment, so long as it goes well, should only last that long. Her doctor still watches over her, and she looks a lot less pale. 

His mother baked him his favorite vanilla, kiwi and strawberry cake with vanilla frosting and the words "Happy Birthday Choco!" on it. His friends weren't sure why his mother kept calling him a chocobo until they saw pictures of Cloud's spikey hair and then asked him fifty thousand questions on how his hair naturally defied gravity and how long it takes to straighten it. 

The cake was sitting in the box as they waited for the Trinity and Zack to show up. Cloud felt weird realizing that people that he idealized were suddenly people who he was on friendly terms with. Him and Zack played video games and ate way too much food regularly. Him and Angeal would often bake and watch old martial arts movies. Him and Genesis would make fun of poorly written movies and TV shows while tasting a new wine each time they met. And him and Sephiroth would often just lay on the couch together binge watching some popular and old show they bought at the store.   
That domestic feeling feels as if it'll never not feel weird. 

He immediately knew it was Zack at the door by the sing-songy knock he did at the door. 

The door beeped letting them in. Zack was holding Gaia knows how many gifts. One gift bag even hanging from his mouth. The rest were all carrying gifts also but Zack just looked comical.   
Cloud rushed over and grabbed some of the gifts from Zack. "Zack you really didn't have to. "

"Hey hey hey, not all of those are just from him. He's just a little shit and wanted it to appear that way. " Genesis retorted while putting down the gifts he was carrying next to the pile of gifts on floor behind the couch. 

Zack scoffed, "I'll have you know that I am a big shit, thank ya very much. Look at these guns." Zack flexed as if it'd be impressive to the Trinity of all people. Cloud watched Zack flex like a twelve year old boy who did the most push ups in gym class for a good while until he was suddenly startled by a deep voice behind him.

"Cloud-" Cloud jumped almost five feet into the air it felt like and grabbed his chest. He would never be used to how quiet and smooth Sephiroth moved.

Ever.

Genesis smirked in Cloud's direction and then offered to poor Cloud's mother the wine he bought for Cloud's birthday. 

" I didn't mean to startle you Cloud and I just meant to ask if you were ready to blow out the candles yet? " Of course Cloud was ready , he had the sweet tooth of a five year old who snuck off to eat the whole cake in a closet and then threw up afterwards. 

...Okay so he was once a five year old who snuck off to eat a whole cake in the closet and then threw up afterwards.

Cloud nodded his head and everyone headed off to the kitchen. His mom pulled the cake back out and placed the baby blue candles into it. One that was a "one" and one that was an "eight". They, well more like Zack, Autumn and Dia, sang, well more like screamed, the Happy Birthday song as loud as they could resulting in Sephiroth sighing, Genesis slapping Zack upside the head , Angeal chuckling while shaking his head, Cloud's mother laughing and then Hitori sighed right along Sephiroth. Cloud just laughed softly and then blew out his candles. 

Sephiroth then made everyone dinner. He had went grocery shopping with Mama Strife (her designated nickname now, coined by Zack) and pre seasoned everything and left it in Cloud's fridge. He cooked them a relatively large meal of fresh seafood rice, and rice noodles along with several homemade dippings and sauces. Everything was straight from a Wutai chef's own personal recipe. The whole loft suddenly smelled like pure heaven.

Honestly food was the only gift Cloud needed to be honest. 

"So Cloud, what are you gonna do now that you're eighteen?"  
Cloud shrugged, " I dunno. I know that I have to start doing photoshoots to promote The Don's new beer next week. "  
"You mean Honey Malt? Yeah we shot ours last week. I guess he was waiting till you were legal." Dia said, trying really hard not to fan girl at the fact that she was eating at the table of Angeal Hewley of all people. She may or may not have a membership to his fanclub.

She does.

"Yes, I mean that makes sense. " Cloud said now picking at his food.  
Zack picked up on Cloud's sudden shift. "Ya know what. I wanna come with."

Cloud snorted, "Why?"

"I dunno I just wanna see how all that stuff works ya know?"

Angeal took a sip of his wine and then chimed in. Understanding what Zack was trying to do. " I think it's best to just let him go Cloud, Zack is-" 

"Annoying, ear grating, why birth control exist, the life stream's one and only mistake , obnox-" 

"Shut up Gen!" Zack threw a shrimp at his hecklers face. 

Mama Strife giggled at first and then busted out laughing. She had no idea how or why the life stream thought that this union was a good idea. But so long as Cloud was safe and happy,that's all that matters.


	6. Add Some Shimmer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud starts actually working.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, I've been sick and I'll have to get surgery soon. It's nothing serious like I'm fine. I've just been really tired!

Gods of Gaia that was awkward. 

Not as awkward as he thought that it was going to be but... awkward.

The photoshoot went well. He's covered in far more makeup than it looks and far more makeup than he's ever put on in his life but it went well. Zack had been there as promised which came in handy. The assistant to the photographer came off kinda...odd. But he started acting normal when Zack walked in. Along with pictures for the ad , Cloud took his offical photos for all the generic Honey Baby merchandise and stores. It took all day and borderline all night but at least he won't have to worry about new official photos until next year. His signature color was baby blue. Which to be honest is nothing new. So all items he receives are gold, baby blue and white. He wore a baby blue sweater with plaid pants that matched his signature pallette. 

Taking photos was...a challenge at first. The last time he took a professional photo was for his Shinra ID. But the photographer was great and told Cloud to just do whatever came naturally to him. 

Cloud now had a huge portrait sitting in the golden lobby of the mansion alongside the others who lived there. There was still an even more giant, empty spot in the center that people see when they first walk in. That was reserved for the Honey Babe. The last Honey Babe's photo had been moved to the all stars hall. They left the huge space open as incentive.  
Cloud walked up one of the main staircases and made his way to the hall where he and all his far too loud , and very goofy, friends live. They had officially named Cloud's loft to be where they all hung out so he wasn't surprised to see the three lingering outside of his door.

"Finally, it took you long enough." Cloud tripped Autumn on their way in resulting in taunts and giggles from the other two.

"So Cloud, how'd the shit yesterday go?" Dia asked making herself completely comfortable on Cloud's bed. 

" It was great actually, the assistant was a little..."

Autumn ran out of Cloud's closet mid trying on Cloud's new cashmere sweater. "Oh God it was Stephan Harold wasn't it?" 

"Ewwwww" Dia screamed out like a cartoon character that was the mean girl in school bouncing on the bed slightly making a face of disgust. 

"Yeah no that dude's awful" Hitori piped in from the window nook as he read his book.

"I meant the way that sweater looks on Autumn , how many times do I have to tell you that you aren't as attractive as Cloud and that you absolutely cannot wear his clothes the way that he does, hmn?"

Autumn deadpanned and then rolled his eyes, returning to Cloud's walk-in so that he could try on one of those big fluffy Shinra training sweaters. He wanted to test to see if they felt as comfortable as the Turk ones. " Whatever, Harold's a creep. Never be alone with him Cloud and learn to brag more about who you're sleeping with. No one's gonna fuck with you with a whole Sephiroth in your corner nonetheless the whole Trinity and a legendary First Class. "

"I haven't slept with any of them." 

"Lies!" They practically all yelled out a similar sentiment but Autumn was the loudest. 

Cloud just rolled his eyes.

"If everyone knows that he's creepy , why's he still working?" Cloud sat at the edge of the bed a bit confused. He figured that that would be breaking some sort of contract or something. 

Hitori snorted and threw his book onto a nearby table. "Because they could careless. Most of the people they work with are desperate and in a field that isn't very respected so people aren't going to care what happens to any of us." 

"Why's this sweater so small?" Autumn waddled out of the closet, " you're HD's are huge."

"That's mine idiot. I was an infantryman remember , infact I need to remind you more often since you enjoy barging into people's closets."

Hitori laughed, "and kitchens"

"And bathrooms" Dia added

"And bedrooms"

"Oh bedrooms are his speciality."

"So he says."

"I meant in the sense that he's in them when nobody wants him to be."

"Oh true."

"Enough with the bitter ugly whores going back and forth." Autumn put Cloud's sweater back and then say down on his bed too. "Just, don't be alone with anybody period okay? People are gross and sketchy. Just be glad you're not a honey bee." 

Cloud was going to respond but he got cut off by the sound of the door buzzer. His room had a little screen with some buttons on the side that controlled the entrance to his apartment. Cloud pressed the 'talk' button "Who is it?"

It was Sephiroth.

Autumn groaned and threw him onto the rest of the bed. "My Gods that man's voice is like sex. Like really , really good sex." 

"Alright anyone who isn't a high ranking Shinra official needs to promptly get out of my loft. " 

They all groaned and begrudgingly got up.

"You guys know that the sooner you get out the door the sooner you get to see him in his civilian wear right?"

They moved very quickly after that. 

Cloud had buzzed Sephiroth in so he had already been sitting on the couch by the time they got downstairs. He was far more casual than normal today. In the all black sweatpant/sweatshirt combo with "SHINRA" printed on the front of the shirt and the left leg pant of the pants that are standard for Frist Class soilders. Specifically for lounging or training. Sephiroth also looked exhausted , at least to people who are familiar with him. His friends didn't seem to notice. They also might have been too busy drooling.

Cloud promptly pushed the three out promising to have lunch tomorrow and locked the door. He turned around to see Sephiroth zoned out a bit. 

Definitely not normal.

"Hey Seph?" 

Sephiroth snapped out of it and looked over to him.

"Ya good?" 

He sighed for a moment rubbed the side of his face.

"I'm fine Cloud I've just exhausted myself a bit. I haven't slept in about two weeks to be honest. Literally. I'm unsure of your familiarity with the effects of mako on myself , Angeal and Genesis but we can go without  
sleeping for a very long time. Normally I'd be sent to get mako injections to keep going but I don't feel like dealing with Hojo currently. I figured he'd assume that I'm fine if I came to visit you. That and I wanted to hear how everything went yesterday."

Cloud had sat down next Sephiroth during his explanation. "It went fine. One of the guys was a little creepy but Zack was there and I'm still Shinra trained so I was fine. Stephen Harold apparently is always like that so it's whatever. 

Sephiroth nodded his head and took note of that. 

"Do you wanna go upstairs? We can nap if you want , I'm honestly kinda tired too. " 

Sephiroth just nodded his head again and slowly got up.  
He took some cold water out of Cloud's mini fridge next to his bed and slipped into Cloud's warm sheets. Cloud joined him and dimmed the lights so that it was just a slight warm glow and put on a show to softly play on the tv as background noise.  
Cloud always forgot that Sephiroth was technically a teenager himself. He was nineteen but was turning twenty in December. At least he thinks it's December. No one really knows when his birthday is. Sephiroth doesn't even know. He just keeps track by the year and whatever Hojo calls him. He was definitely turning twenty this year though.  
Cloud always remembered how close in age they were when he saw him up close in such a casual setting. No "General Sephiroth" scowl or leather uniform or intimidating sword. Just Seph. Who was currently knocked the fuck out. Like in a hard slumber.  
He reached up and softly touched Sephiroth's face and tucked his hair behind his ear. Touching the general's hair will never not be an odd experience. Especially since Sephiroth is extra protective of his hair. Only Cloud, Angeal , Zack and Genesis are allowed to touch the legendary long and thick hair of the most fearsome warrior in all of Gaia. 

Seph looked so peaceful all of a sudden , laying there like that. His fourteen years old self would never believe that Sephiroth was laying intimately in his bed right now. Cloud was just glad yet a bit sad that Sephiroth has forgotten to remove his sweatshirt before laying down so that he could get more comfortable. 

The past twenty-four hours had been awkward enough without Cloud embarrassing himself. He tsked a bit realizing that some of the glitter from yesterday was still in his hair, reminding him that he very much had to leave the comfort of Sephiroth and his bed and take a shower to removed the cake of nonsense all over him. He never wants to see glitter or a bottle of makeup shimmer ever again.


	7. Don't Tell My Mom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snitches get... No reprocussions apparently, at least not yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments and stuff!

If fourteen year old Cloud saw him now he'd thought he died in combat and went to heaven.

First of all, apparently Cloud was a lot more attractive than he gave himself credit for cause everywhere he went swooning followed. Second of all the entire Holy Shinra Trinity was apart of that swooning. Third of all he was presently underneath the leader of it all giving away his first kiss to the one and the only... 

The Silver Elite are either gonna hate him or worship him when they see these various obvious marks on his neck during his Honey Baby media apearance tomorrow. 

How it happened he didn't know. For the past couple of months Sephiroth had been visiting off and on whenever he was really tired and wanted to get away from Shinra for a bit. They had one public event they had to go to last month though. But even that ended up with Sephiroth coming back to sleep at Cloud's place. They had been doing their whole absentmindedly watch a show/movie while cuddling routine when Sephiroth brought up that Cloud's accent came out whenever he said the word "alright". 

"When i-, I thought I was saying it in standard?"

"You never pronounce the 'l'."

He turned to face Seph a little better. "A'right?"

"See."

"How the shit do you say it then?"

"Alright."

"That's what I said!"

Sephiroth chuckled and shook his head. "Cloud say 'all'."

"All."

"Right."

"Right."

"Alright."

"A'right" Sephiroth laughed and shook his head again.

Cloud blushed and pouted.

Sephiroth, a bit taken aback with himself chuckled once more , "Don't worry about it Cloud, you're very cute." 

Sephiroth gave a little bop to Cloud's nose resulting in him pouting even more.

Next thing you know Cloud's been making out with the teenage general of Shinra for at least three episodes of some animated Wutai show that comes on at late night. All he knew was that anymore toungue and hip and he'll embarrass himself.

Cloud giggled out a stop and pushed Sephiroth off of him finally. Slightly disturbed by his suddenly bubbly disposition but I guess this is the general affect of a pretty boy shoving their toungue down your throat for an hour ,among other things. 

Sephiroth gave Cloud one last kiss before rolling off and then tucking Cloud back into his arms. He went to speak but was interrupted by his PHS buzzing. He kept himself from smirking when he read the caller name.

"I'll be right back Cloud" , who gave him the response of " 'kay" as he walked out into the hallway.

"And just where have you been?"

"Hello to you too, Gen." Sephiroth said finally smirking. 

"I can hear you smirking you little shit. Where have you been?" 

"Busy." Gen rolling his eyes were basically audible. 

"Why that blonde has you and Angeal so damn entranced I don't know." 

Sephiroth rolled his eyes knowing exactly what Gen's problem was. Genesis was far more insecure than he ever let on. Cloud was absolutely stunning and since he was so damn cute he had everyone's attention at all times. None of them could help themselves but to spoil Cloud during their free time. Genesis wasn't used to someone rivaling him in the "androgynous sex-on-legs" department and he wasn't taking it well. Cloud had this whole "androgynous sex kitten" thing going on without even realizing that he did. If he ever, he will without a doubt replace Sephiroth as Genesis's frienemy. 

"Is there something that you want Genesis?"

He huffed, "My boyfriend back would be nice."

"I'll be back tomorrow afternoon." 

"My God you and Angeal are just- , I expected Zack to be this way but the two of you are absurd." 

Sephiroth walked downstairs to the kitchen to make the two of them some snacks, "How so?"

"Tsk, Banora Boy won't stop talking about how 'cute' Cloud is. Or he stupid fucking freckles or his stupid fucking hair or his stupid fucking eyes are his dumb little nose or whatever the hell else he's used to hypnotize you perverted brutes." 

Sephiroth wedged the PHS in-between his shoulder and head , smirking once more, "Cloud's appeal has nothing sinister behind it." 

Genesis did an exaggerated laugh , " Is that why you and Angeal were discussing which one would go in fir-"

"Shut. Up. " 

Genesis smirked and shook his head, "You're almost, no pretty much are twenty years old and you speak to me like a pouty child." 

"And you speak to me like a petty , insecure teenager who is jealous of the sexy and cute new student from the countryside." 

"As if I could ever be jealous of him. Since you haven't seen me as if late I guess you just forgot . One moment.". The call switched to video call and Genesis's face appeared, smug. "There , as a reminder that that little brat is not a threat to me." 

"Seph?" Cloud called out from the top of the stairs. Cloud bounced down the stairs. Perfectly in Genesis's view wearing nothing but Sephiroth's training sweatshirt, which was unsurprisingly huge on him, with very obviously disheveled hair.  
Cloud walked over to the kitchen island where Sephiroth had been putting all the snacks onto a dinner tray.

"Oh Genesis , hey!" Cloud beamed and did a small wave to the man on the tiny screen. Cloud freckles had been fading so only a few laid across his nose and some closer to his ears. Up close Genesis could see the bright red marks on his neck and how red and pouty his lips were. That was ten out of ten the work of General Sephiroth...whatever his last name was. And Cloud wore it very, very well. 

Sephiroth smirked for the thousandth time since seeing the caller ID. "Well Genesis as you were saying?"

"Nothing, I was saying that if you don't come home tomorrow there might be serious reprocussions you know ... the general has a job that he hasn't been doing lately." 

Sephiroth pointedly stared back into the PHS, " Even when I come back tomorrow I may not want to force myself to do such begrudging work after being in such bliss for a weekend.That'd be painful." 

Genesis turned up his lip and tsked. " Well I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Tomorrow." Sephiroth hung up and picked up the tray.

"Why do I feel like you guys are always bickering about something?" Cloud asked taking the drinks to help out as they went back upstairs. 

Sephiroth chuckled, "Because we are, we've been rivals since he first came to Shinra. But it's more playful than anything else." 

They went back upstairs and lounged around a little bit before Cloud got a phone call from his mother.

"Ya Ma?"

"Cloud Strife."

Cloud sat up a bit knowing that tone of voice.

"Ya...Ma?"

"What is the number one thing that I've taught you?"

" Not to feed Chocobo's chocolate? "

"No, I mean yes, but not that."

" Never give it up until you know it'll secure you money?"

"Yes! And look what you've gone and done."

"... huh?" Cloud sat all the way up genuinely confused.

"You know what you did young man Genesis told me."

"Gensis?"

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes, being able to hear the entire conversation due to his SOLDIER hearing. 

"Yes, little Gen said he was concerned that you had gotten a little caught up in this honey nonsense and you've been sleeping with Sephiroth.

Cloud coughed getting up from off the bed,  
"Ma...what? No I've never slept with Seph. I mean we've slept in the same bed but we've never... done that. Ma, this is gross and embarrassing mother."

"Ya promise?" Cloud's mother said in a whinny childish voice , he could hear her pouting through the phone.

"Yes Ma, now are we done?" He crossed his arms desperately trying to hold down the blush that was on his cheeks. What in the shit was Genesis's deal anyway. 

"Yeah, just... keep your cute little butt closed please." 

"Ma!" Cloud yelled out in horror attempting to hold onto the little bit of dignity he had left. 

Mama Strife giggled and said her goodbyes , reassuring Cloud that everything has been going well with her health, and then hung up.

Sephiroth was already plotting his revenge.

\---

Cloud smiled shyly at each camera, trying not to squint from the blinding flash of lights. He was attending a showcase for the new Honey Baby pajama line. All the Honey Babies showed up in their own signature pajamas and were taking press pictures before heading inside. Inside was a large hall that had been dimmed. Along side one wall was an edited group picture consisting of all twelve of the Honey Babies's photos aligned together. Cloud for whatever reason was in the middle. Everyone noticed this. He was in the middle for the group photo for the press too. 

Cloud sat in the front row with Dia on one side of him and Autumn on the other. Hitori sat beside Dia on her other side. Dia was wearing a light green babydoll nightdress, that had fur on the bra part, sparkly green straps and was see through at the bottom with a fur trim. She wore matching small green satin shorts with the gold Honey Baby pattern accross it underneath, with with thigh high socks and and green feathered designer high heel shoes. 

Autumn had on a cream colored sweater with cream and brown checkered lounge pants. His slippers were a dark green like his hair and had the Honey Bee emblem on the front.

Hitori's pajamas were all black satin. The buttons were also black but with a hint of gold from the Honey Baby emblem being imprinted on each. His slippers were also black with the iconic emblem. 

Cloud had the most extravagant out of them all. And for whatever reason instead of just general measurements, Cloud had gone in to see the designer herself to have everything perfectly tailored under the Don's orders. Cloud's knit sweater that had be woven with a hint of gold slipped perfectly off the side of his right shoulder. In gold the word "SHINRA" were across the front of his chest. His shorts , in his opinion, were too short but the designer had insisted that was the point. But thankfully his sweater was huge , meant to look like it belonged to one of the First Class SOLDIER s that he was supposed to be sleeping with. His shorts were also baby blue , with clouds all over them and the emblem all over them too. The string to them were gold , with a gold charm on each end of the signature Shinra symbol. His socks were white with the HB emblem pattern, and his slippers were also baby blue, with memory foam and a white cloud printed on the front that had the emblem floating on top of it. With a gold ribbon sewn on top of the front near his ankle. He even had a matching white eye mask resting as a headband that had "Cloud" written in gold cursive. 

He was aware of how of how much everyone stared. Either out of curiosity or out of envy. And for once Cloud didn't really feel self conscious about it. 

His friends teased him about it. Especially whenever the media asked him some sort of invasive question. Like when they asked him "Who was the biggest?" 

For whatever reason Cloud being flustered and blushing just made them love him even more. 

They watched the show that were showcasing pajamas meant for the general public. They had an array of colors that all matched whatever favorite Honey Baby a person had.

Afterwards they headed to the required after party. Him, Dia, Hitori and Autumn all sat in a different section from the rest. The lounge was that odd, not loud , but not quiet level of noise. So Cloud didn't have to speak over much when be finally asked what he's been thinking for awhile 

"Why are we always separate from everyone?" He took a sip of his wine that had been sent over by the Don himself. 

"You mean you don't know? " Autumn grinned out ,putting Dia's feet in his lap after removing her shoes. 

"Know what?"

Hitori put down his drink, "Cloud, we are the top rankings for Honey Babies. We make the most money so we get the nicest lofts , more perks and then we have the highest chance at becoming the next Honey Babe."

Autumn cleared his throat, " I am the one who has the highest chance of being Honey Babe. 

Dia snorted and almost spat out her drink, "The fucking delulu state you live in dude. Cloud had the one and only General Sephiroth in his bed for three days straight this past weekend. And you think you're up to bat?" 

Autumn pouted and crossed his arms, "Hi-tan you'd pick me to screw over Cloud wouldn't you?" He said in his cutest voice possible. 

Hitori faked like he was contemplating for a moment and then finally answered, "Cloud eleven times out of ten no doubt , he bent over earlier I almost broke house rules. " 

Cloud smirked and shrugged at Autumn who then threw himself dramatically in the corner giving everyone the silent treatment until the food got there. 

They ate their food slowly and laughed, swapping stories about whatever gossip had been running around the house. 

"Gods , you know who ya need to watch out for Cloud?"Autumn said between bites. 

"Who?" 

"That psycho Lydell, that woman is insanely obsessed with whoever is a threat to her getting to be the Honey Babe."

Dia nodded her head, " She tried to break into Autumn's apartment to destroy his wardrobe. And she loves to pick fights." 

Cloud nodded his head in consideration, "I'll keep that in mind I'm used to bullies. " 

"She's seething that you got not only the General but the whole Trinity and their puppy. It's hilarious." Autumn gave a smug look and then took a sip of his drink. 

Suddenly there was a slight knock at the covered booth. 

"Strife? " A waiter called out.

"Yeah?" 

"Your HD's are here to congratulate you, they are in the private Shinra section waiting for you. " 

Cloud slid out the booth ignoring the "oo's" , eyebrow wiggles and whistles. Cloud walked behind the staff member under the assumption that they mean the roped off section to the left but instead he was lead to a private elevator to go to the all glass, gold floor right above that looked out to the rest of the lounge.

And literally everyone was watching.

Cloud stepped off to be greeted by Zack jumping up and putting him into a headlock. "Hey deflated spiky !"

He swatted the giant man off of him , "I let you see my hair spiky once, ONCE and this is how you repay me?"

Zack laughed and ruffled Cloud's hair before fixing the eyemask that now sat on his nose. 

"Puppy, sit." Angeal pointed to a nearby sofa while Sephiroth went to go push the button for the curtains that closed over the large glass walls for some privacy.

Whatever is about to happen, he hopes nobody tells his mom.


	8. That's Cute

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud remembers SOLDIER for once in the worst way and there's suddenly cameras everywhere .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lost everything I wrote in the middle of writing this so kinda :((((((((((( rn. & TW for panic attacks

Cloud's uniform was heavy. And seeing through his helmet was annoying. Not because his couldn't see, but because having to see through it in itself was annoying. He couldn't look away from the miles upon miles of bodies in front of him. The look of his hands as they turned around mutated bodies to check for SHINRA dog tags so that he can call the carrier to come pick it, them, up. And with every body three more appeared and with every three nine more appeared and with every nine over fifty appeared and with every fifty almost two hundred appeared and with every two hundred thousands appeared.The fog covering up the beauty, highlighting the devastation. The dog tags listing them as his peers only with a few years difference in age. Their rotting flesh causing him to gag on occasion, overwhelming him. Never to smile again, never to make another mistake, never to achieve another goal, never to make a family member smile or love again if they even had. And for what?

For what?

"That's a good question, Cloud."  
\----

Cloud woke up in a cold sweat. His chest was heavy and he felt thirstier than after any training session he's every had. It was like everything was burning and trying to suffocate him at the time. He leaned over to his bedroom's mini fridge and drank the first water bottle his hand could grab before choking from the phantom smell. He put his hands on his head and made himself as small as possible. Trying , his damn near hardest not to cry. He failed at that, like he does everything else, and fell back into his bed attempting to choke back sobs. He took all of his blankets and cocooned himself entirely within them, feeling like he was in an intense amount of pain. He was panicking and he wasn't exactly sure why but his whole body was in alert and the pain he was experiencing felt different than just a cut or a hit. It was like it was vibrating throughout his whole body, but was choking him too. Cloud laid there for awhile trying to force it all down until he passed out and thankfully didn't dream.

\---

When Cloud woke up once more his whole body hurt. But in an achy way. Not in a whatever weird...nonsense way that happened last night. Who the crap hyperventilates and passes out from crying? That wasn't...normal.

Cloud shook as he got out of bed and slowly made his way to the bathroom. He was met in my mirror by a very red, and very bloated version of his face. And his eyes looked so... empty? When Cloud was little he had some depressive episodes from all the bullying so that looked familiar. But there must have been something wrong with his lungs or something cause what was with him not being able to breathe?

'Whatever I'll go to the doctor later.'

Cloud climbed in to the now warm bathtub to relax his muscles, and put a towel over his face to stop the bloating. 

His time with SHINRA wasn't even bad. He couldn't figure out for the life of him why he was freaked out so much during that weird dream that was based off a memory. A memory of him doing something so basic as infantryman clean up. 

You don't even think when doing that stuff.

He lifted a foot out of the water and stretched.

He's sure Sephiroth has seen much worse, and the rest of his HDs too. He's only had to kill a few people, they've killed hundreds maybe even thousands during the Wutai War. He really shouldn't be having nightmares about it. Seph was in middle school when he first got out onto the field and he's fine. Occasionally stressed out about paperwork but fine. 

He never says he isn't.

Cloud drained the bathtub once he finally felt like his muscles were relaxed. Today marked the first day of filming for the new reality TV show called "Honey Babiez" on a channel he swore had been meant for music. That was what everyone had came to congratulate him for. Making him the first to know. Also that he ranked number one online for Honey Baby popularity, making him the face of all of the promo for the show. Him and his friends will be getting the most screentime. B team and C team still get air time too, but most of their footage will be filler. 

The Nibel waddled over to his closet to switch into his grey skinny jeans, his white turtle neck crop top and his baby blue cardigan. Then he made his way downstairs to cook breakfast, later a knock rapped at his door. Cloud looked through the peephole to see who it was only to be met with the image of his friends and a camera crew behind them already in the process of filming HBZ. 

"Hey" Cloud said while opening the door.

Dia bounced her way in, " Oooh I smell spiced apples cooking!" 

"Hey wait a minute are you making waffles? You asshole you could've asked.". Autumn made his way over to where the leftover batter was and started making himself a waffle.

Hitori just shrugged and then threw himself on the nearest couch. 

At least his friends have dedicated themselves to truly showing the world the reality of it all. 

"You open your merch box yet?" Autumn asked as he raised Cloud's fridge so he could make some sausage.

"Merch box?"

"It's in your hallway!" Dia poked her head out the kitchen area to point at Cloud's front door.

Cloud went over and picked up the heavy box and placed it on the coffee table. 

"WTF why is yours so big?" Autumn said poking the box like it had a bomb.

"I get asked that question a lot."

"Hitori, not one person, not one, meant that." 

Cloud shook his head as the two started to faux argue and opened the box. He already had to deal with them enough last night when they kept hugging him excessively and taking him out for barbeque and beer once hearing that he was number one in the online rankings. 

Also these cameras are very discomforting. 

He removed some of the packing stuffing to finally see a plethora of licensed Honey Babe™ merchandise from costumes to make up to clothing to toys children have no business playing with.

That Cloud has no business playing with.

That his mother has no business seeing him hold on national television.

What is up with this new trend of exposing him to his mother?

Stop telling his mother things.

Stop allowing Autumn to have hands and allowing him to hit people with maple syrup covered dildos.

Stop making Cloud have to form sentences like that. 

Cloud wacked it out of his hand like it was a pistol. Making it fly to some forever undisclosed location. "Stop that you mutated gremlin." 

"He does look a lil mutated gremlin-y. " Hitori nodded his head along Dia's assessment.

Autumn gave a gutteral grunt of dissipproval. 

"Wow that's cute." Cloud said dryly before digging through the rest of what was in his box. 

\------  
Zack was not wearing pants today. He doesn't care. No pants. Nope. 

He was currently sprawled across his bed attempting to use his brain as little as possible. He wasn't loading up past fifteen percent today. His one hundred percent could suck one. 

There were Wutai frozen food packages everywhere. Zack had heated up his sixth twelve pack of dumplings. 

Would Ang find him mildly dishonorable? Yea.

Would Sephiroth do the eyebrow twitchy thing he does when Zack is being extra annoying? Yea.

Would Genesis create a campaign for everyone to break up with him? Yea.

But is Zack wearing pants? No.

And that's all that matters. 

He couldn't hang out with Cloud today because he's filming for that new TV show or whatever. Ang had left on a mission and then there's no way Genesis would wanna visit with his apartment being this much of a mess and he couldn't go to his place since he'd immediately pick up on Zack not being interested in human-ing today. Last is Mr. General boy and he's in the middle of a press conference. 

His boyfriend's don't love him is what he gets from this. And his best friend rather be cute on tv instead of cute in his arms.

Well, not really but that doesn't mean he's not gonna be a brat and bring that up later. 

Zack took a sip of his Gongagan beer and the chugged it straight afterwards through the empty can at some random spot in the room. 

Zack had been dealing with several petty missions and one medium in difficulty mission. They were all back to back to back. And normally Zack doesn't mind that and even goes on his PHS to look for more missions but honestly he was tired of SHINRA today. 

Which honestly felt very weird to think and he would never dare say.

He hadn't slept for the past week so that he could bang out all his assigned missions and not have to worry about when to do the next one. Sephiroth usually runs off to snuggle with Cloud when he gets like this which sounds amazing but, again Cloud is busy and Zack is too worn out to even head over there. He would've had Cloud do a house call or a "Swarm". The whole honey bee thing was very much embedded into everything Honey Babies were about.

Cloud didn't even like bees. 

Zack stretched and then groaned a bit in pain. He would normally get a mako drop or something but the labs are far away and for whatever reason Seph blew up in a very Sephiroth way aka dead silence with his eyes narrowed and warned him not to go to the labs anymore in case it was an emergency. He thought maybe Seph was worried about wasting resources but Genesis informed him that that wasn't the case and that he'll learn in due time. And emphasized that it   
would hopefully be through word of mouth. 

So Zack just figured he'd just rest and stretch his muscles until he felt better. He had a class to teach tomorrow and he needed to be back in shape so he can give proper demonstrations. 

Whatever is up with the rest of his boyfriend's he's never gonna understand. But maybe he should call b  
Bow girl and ask her what she's up to for a distraction.


	9. I'm a Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud wrestles with gender theory and hides from Andi. He also doesn't have a crush on Sephiroth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I disappeared for months my life is hard.

Cloud didn't mine the stuff he wore for his image. He really didn't. He even made silver waist chains popular with men again since his usual ensamble consists of baby blue pastel jeans , a matching fitted sweater... turtle neck ...crop top thing and a giant fluffy baby blue coat with clouds printed on it with a bee sleeping on top of each cloud gifted to him by the one and only Andrea Rhodea. It was his image for the company, like a uniform of sorts.  
Speaking of Andrea, Cloud is never going to go under the plate every again. You see, the manor Cloud and the other Honey Babes live in is above plate for easy access for the SOLDIERS and Turks. But the rest of the Honey... franchise is near Sector Six under the plate. The Hive , the Honeybee Inn , and Corneo's mansion are all down there. Which was the only reason Cloud had been down there in the first place.

'Cuz Cloud is a country boy and he like the sun.

Even though the fog above plate did make it a little hard to see said sun.

Cloud had went to the Honeybee Inn to take pictures to promote the big show that happens once a month. He unfortunately also had to be seen at a party the Don was holding since Cloud is so popular with the public.

Everyone, everyone, has been saying "That's Cute" for the past month. Cloud was just talking he didn't mean to make a wholeass catch phrase. 

He's also been swearing a lot more lately. That's a thing now.

Anyway, long story short Andi forced Cloud to get up on stage and dance and now he's chosen Cloud to be his muse and keeps trying to force him into a dress. 

Listen, Cloud knows that gender isn't as strict as people back home make it out to be. And Cloud may have a closet specifically for sexual cosplay purposes that consists of a lot of feminine attire given to him by his company that he has not touched because Cloud is a very good boy. 

But Cloud doesn't wanna wear a dress and if he don't wanna he don't wanna. 

Andi swears up and down that it's not a sexual thing but but a baby blue glittery halter mini dress with a low back that has a chain with a bee drawing attention to his ass isn't exactly the most modest thing for a human being to wear. 

Like yeah you can wear revealing clothing and not be interested in sex but fuck.

Fuck. 

Cloud doesn't like anything hyper masculine or anything hyper feminine. 

"You could just wear it around the house." Zack said as he lounged across Cloud's bed and like Cloud couldn't go back to his infantryman training and drop kick him. He probably wouldn't win the whole fight but he could at least give him a bruise for five minutes.

"Oh shut up you'd like that would you?" Cloud threw the tv remote at Zack's head from where he stood by his closet. 

Zack caught it of course. 

"I dunno but Ang might." 

Cloud huffed and rolled his eyes. "Why must you lie on this poor man?" 

Zack sat up and swung his legs around the side of the bed to face Cloud. " I ain't lyin' I deadass think he would. Gen would like the school girl outfit, Seph would without a doubt like the infantryman one and then me...I'm not a picky guy ya know?" 

"Zachary I'm a minor."

"You ain't a minor you've been eighteen for thirty years."

"Zack I turned eighteen like three months ago."

"Ah ha! So you are legal." 

Cloud face plamed and made his way downstairs while Zack bumbled behind him. 

"I'm having a hard time believing that Angeal is dating you to be honest." 

"He enjoys my boyish charms." 

"It sounds like the military is just lonely and you become desperate for options." 

Zack put Cloud in a fake chokehold and started messing with his hair much to his protest. 

"Why are you so mean to me huh Cloudy baby ? All I ever do is love you." 

Cloud finally pulled himself out of his hold and rapidly slapped Zack away a few times.

"Zack what did I tell you about touching my hair? " 

"God you and Seph are obsessive about your hair. Speaking of Seph, he said he'll be back from his mission tomorrow so he might pop in." 

Cloud paused for a moment and then went back to trying to figure out what to cook. "Oh, that's... that's nice." He's not smiling his face just has a weird reflex issue that acts up from time to time.

Zack grinned and quickly got closer to Cloud and leaned into his face. "D'aw your crush on him is cute.You always get all weird when he's around." 

Cloud fumbled with the box of pasta he was holding while also trying to pull away from Zack. "W-what I don't have a crush on Sephiroth I don't even know him like that the general's just nice that's all and I never have to cook with him around and sometimes he teaches me some cool fighting stuff and then he's comfortable to lay on but like not like that just that like he's warm is all I don't have a crush on anyone Zack last crush I had was on a girl from my old town and that was forever ago I never not once in my life thought about any of you that way so I don't even know why'd you bring that up do you want tomato or alfredo sauce  
I'm gonna make a seafood pasta lemme wash my hands."

"... if that was written it'd be a run on sentence , did you even breathe just then? Holy shit Strife you got it bad."

"Zack I swear to the fucking lifestream and all of our ancestors within it I will fucking drop kick you I could give a shit about how much mako you're on I will fucking drop you." Cloud started pouring the pasta into the pot desperately trying to not look flustered and him opening drawers that he clearly didn't need wasn't exactly helping him. "I don't have a crush on him and I don't get weird when he's around." 

" Really now so if say, I don't know, Seph came back home from his mission early and he's walking up to the door right now to check in on you you wouldn't be flustered?"

Cloud huffed and took out all the seafood. "No, no I wouldn't." 

"Really? Great lemme go open the door I've been hearing him come for the past two minutes and now his footsteps sound closer." Zack practically skipped to go open the door much to Cloud's horror for multiple reasons. 

"Za-Zack wait!" All Cloud was wearing was a hoodie and some sweatpants. He can't just...he...shit. Cloud ran up the stairs after putting the burner on the stove on low to go change.  
Zack swung open the door a bit to Sephiroth's surprise. Sephiroth was off his game a bit today. He doesn't want to think about why either.  
"Cloud look Seph's- where'd the kid go? " Zack looked towards the kitchen confused until he heard Cloud coming down the stairs dressed completely different than before. How the shit did he unspike his hair, put on clear mascara, and put on those jeans and that crop top so fucking fast. Zack must have been so distracted by wanting to embarrass him that he didn't pay attention to the sounds of him running up the stairs.  
"Hey Sephiroth!" Cloud beamed, in a very Cloud way so it was only noticed if you knew him well. Zack playfully side eyed his friend and gave him a knowing look before going to get a beer from the fridge. 

"Hello Cloud... I hope I'm not intruding. I would have notified you if it wasn't because my PHS died. " 

"Oh no it's fine! You're not intruding on anything it's just Zack." Cloud gestured for him to sit down on the couch ignoring the loud and whinny "Hey!" being yelled from the kitchen part of the room. Zack likes to act as if this loft isn't open concept.

Zack came over to where they were sitting and reminded Cloud that there was pasta on the stove and asked Sephiroth how his mission went. They spoke for a bit and Cloud felt a little...weird. He's thankful that he has a nice living situation currently but he also just feels...like a failure. He told his old friend that he was coming to Midgar to become a SOLDIER. Not a glorified sex worker. What would those little shits who said he would amount to nothing think?   
He shook his head and just focused on not burning anything.


	10. Those Damn Boobs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud runs into a childhood friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk if I'm supposed to type "The Don" or "the Don" but I'm trying
> 
> TW for kidnapping but it's not graphic and everyone is okay.

Cloud, believe it or not, wouldn't mind being in a relationship with with a girl. He's definitely more attracted to men but he's definitely been attracted to girls before. He even had a crush on a girl from back home for awhile. 

But Cloud still hasn't really been in a romantic relationship before. Yeah, he technically goes out on dates with the Holy Shinra Trinity and their puppy but he's not really...dating them.   
They are dating each other though...which is weird. Like it makes sense but...that's not exactly a common scenario for a lot of people. Sometimes Cloud wondered if maybe he was intruding on their relationship but they reassured him several times that he was fine. Especially since the public can't know about the foursome's relationship. 

Mostly because the public was annoying.

Cloud finished putting on his tinted moisturizer and went downstairs to put on his shoes in his usual all baby blue get up. Straighting his hair is a bit of a bitch at times, but he does have an image to uphold and the mop of spikes he naturally sports isn't a part of it.   
It's weird being considered to be...so... attractive...to so many people. He never really experienced so many people fawning over him before. Better yet he's never experienced people fawning over him period. His face is plastered all over magazines, billboards, advertisements on tv, beer campaigns, and the gossip blogs won't stop talking about "Andrea Rhodea's muse" and "The Holy Shinra Trinity and their puppy's stunning Honey Baby".   
He went to the grocery store yesterday and saw some flashing lights. Next thing you know he goes on his PHS to see him buying meat to cook on all the popular blogs. What was so fascinating about him buying food to eat he doesn't know but people seemed to be really tickled by it. 

The personal driver for the Honey Babies drove Cloud to the train station warning him to be careful and to call him before getting onto the train to come back. Cloud was heading to go under the plate to hang out with Andi and help out at the Inn. Even though Andi kept trying to put him in a dress, he still really enjoyed hanging around him and getting advice. He's definitely like an older brother who's not afraid to give you tough love but also loves on you every five minutes.   
Cloud went into the VIP cart on the train and ordered a strawberry tart and some earl grey tea. Honestly there wasn't much scenery on the train. It's just a downward path in a big metal tunnel for the most part. But something about the experience still feels so posh. But then again he is also from a mountain so many things impress him.   
He may be in all baby blue again but this time he wore a cashmere sweater , that wasn't cropped for once, matching jeans and a chunky blue headband that honestly crossed the line of feminity he is typically comfortable with but Andi bought it for him and he kinda likes it. His hair is always in his face now so it's nice to take a break. 

"Sector 7!" The conductor called out once the artificial sun shined through the train's windows, and the train whined to a slow stop. The artificial sun was in the middle of stimulating sundown so soon enough it'd be a pale blue instead of yellow.

He decided to walk over to Wall Market from there since it was just easier. Not to mention he doesn't get to just...walk places anymore. He's always being driven somewhere and then driven straight back home. 

This is the first time that he's walked around without security in Gaia knows how long. 

He took this opportunity to take a stroll through town. He even picked up some Banora sweet cakes from this nice older woman who owned a Banora bakery shop. It was a little ghetto but honestly that made the food taste better somehow.

It's hard to explain. 

She moved from Banora a couple years back since Shinra bought out her house to use as housing for SOLDIERS on missions. The local kids just call her Granny Nora and she doesn't seem to mind. 

"Cloud! I'm so glad you came when you did. I just made some fresh sweet cakes and I made way too much stew for myself. Are you hungry? I can pack some stew to go if you want!" Granny Nora walked over to the pot and put some stew in a to-go container before Could could even answer. She even gave him some fresh bread , a napkin and a disposable spoon. 

"Thanks Granny Nora , here." Cloud tried handing her some extra money for the stew but she insisted for him to just take it and that he was actually doing her a favor. 

He of course snuck a hundred gil into the tip jar when she wasn't looking. 

Cloud made his way out of the shop and made his way towards the gate to walk down the path to Wall Market.

"H-hey!" 

Cloud turned around to see if someone was calling him only to noticed a girl with brown hair running after a carriage. 

"Hey! She's a human being not a friggin' piece a meat to be sold on the market! Wedge! Jessie! Biggs! Ugh!" 

Cloud followed with his eyes where exactly the girl was looking to only see to his horror someone very familiar. 

"Tifa?" He called out by mistake. He hadn't seen Tifa in a good four years now. It's amazing how much the two of them look so different and yet the same. 

The brown haired girl turned around after hearing him and quickly ran over. 

"Wait a minute do you know Tifa? How?" She grabbed onto him and pulled on him. 

"I-I" Cloud stammered for a bit not sure how to handle someone randomly grabbing his arm like this. 

"Whatever , it doesn't matter! Tifa really needs our help! We were in the bar and then all of a sudden The Don's goons came in and told her she was needed. I kept asking them for what and they kept ignoring me. We went to fight back but the bastards casted sleep on Tifa and then silenced me." 

"Wh-what does The Don want with Tifa?" 

"I just said I dunno just come on!" The girl pulled Cloud towards the gate and they made a run for it to Wall Market. 

How Cloud got through basic training he doesn't know cause he was dying by the time they got there.   
Cloud attempted to catch his breathe and pulled the girl towards the Chocobo barn right outside of Wall Market's entrance. 

"Sa-sam...Sam...fuck...Sam , there was a girl in a carriage that just came through. Was it one of yours? "

Sam , far more country than Cloud has ever been by the way, informed Cloud that one of his carriages was taken out but he didn't know what for. Just that The Don wanted someone to get a hitch into town. 

Cloud grabbed the girl again and ran over to the Honeybee Inn while ignoring any catcalls and kicking however he needed to out of the way. 

Andrea was in his home behind the Inn when Cloud came in like a Drake out of hell. He practically spilled his coffee out of shock and quickly collected himself. 

"Cloud sweetheart what the hell? Are you alright?"

"I...a friend...did ...have you heard from The Don lately? About a girl ...dark brown hair...pale...a little country...boobs unreasonably big." Cloud leaned on his knees beginning to think he really wasn't cut out for SOLDIER after all.

"Was the boobs comment necessary?" The strange girl with him asked as she threw herself on a nearby. sofa. 

"They're kinda hard to miss Kelly." 

"Kelly?" She yelled lifting herself up, "My name's not Kelly it's Aeirth!" 

"And how in the shit would I know that when you pretty much kidnapped me to go save Tifa without so much of an introduction?" 

" I don't know who you are but I hate you and I just wanna get Tifa back."

Cloud rolled his eyes and turned to Andi, "You haven't gotten any new girls right?" 

Andrea shook his head, "I know my staff better than they know themselves, there's no way a new employee would be missed by me. And there's no new Honey Babies either. So the only other place I could think of is...the Hive." 

Clouds eyes grew bigger than they naturally were. He grabbed a bat from behind Andi's personal bar. 

" You, Aeris...Aerith...Kelly whatever , you stay here. And I mean that shit unless you wanna spend years in therapy you stay the shit here. I'll be back." 

Cloud ran as fast as he could to the secret back alley that leads to the Hive. He walked past the very shocked bouncers and headed straight towards the dressing room. All Hive workers had to wear a black and yellow stripped two piece that barely covered anything and everyone pretty much shared these uniforms so they all got dressed in the same place. Cloud didn't know much about the Hive, honestly no one but the ones who work there and The Don know. But what he did know is that working in a whole ass brothel is not exactly a safe thing to do. 

Everyone was of course startled when Cloud, the Cloud Strife, the one and only ,stormed into the room. 

"Have you guys heard of girl named Tifa?" Cloud loudly asked over the chitter chatter and music playing while looking around. 

"Cloud!" 

Cloud turned around to see Tifa running towards him to only stumble over her feet and fall into him. 

"Tifa!" 

"Cloud I need to get outta here , I tried punching my way out but I'm all dizzy."

"You're gonna leave right now Tifa no worries. Why'd you get dragged over here?" He asked pulling out a hair tie from his pocket and putting his sweater onto her, leaving himself in just a white undershirt. He put her hair into a bun and began walking out her out leaving everyone confused.

"I run a bar-"

"I'm sorry you're seventeen and you run a bar?"

"I don't own it, " she winced while trying to walk straight only to fall back onto Cloud. 

"That wasn't my concern."

"I know I know it's just, we owe the Don money and he said we'd have to pay it back one way or another."

Cloud sighed and made his way to the Don's mansion and finally just picked Tifa up and carried her around. 

"How much?" 

"17,000 Gil."

"Tifa are you shitting me you could have told my Ma to call me. The sweater you're wearing cost triple that, I have the money." 

"Cloud, I wasn't about to just ask you for money. I wasn't just going to call you suddenly now that you're all famous and rich and crap and ask you for money that's shitty."

Cloud rolled his eyes but then sighed because he saw her point. He made his way up for the Don's office and after some flirting, and attempting to hold down throw up Corneo agreed to letting Cloud pay off the debt. 

By the time they got back to Andi's he had left to go oversee the inn for awhile after making some dinner. 

"Tifa!" , Aerith jumped out of her seat and ran over to the two of them as Cloud laid Tifa down on the couch.   
Tifa muttered for a moment before falling asleep.

Cloud had half the mind to give her a remedy or something but he figured she was also just naturally tired and could use some rest. He took the bat back from Tifa who had been holding it for him and placed it back behind the bar. 

His PHS rang and he saw Genesis on his caller ID. 

"Hey Gen." Cloud sighed and sat down.

"Hi...is everything alright?"

"Yeah, well no but yeah, like it's fine now. "

"Do you want to talk about it?" 

" I'll tell y'all about it later I feel like I had to do a 03:00 drill in the middle of the fucking winter after coming home from Wutai body clean up for a week straight in the middle of a hail storm."

"That was oddly specific yet understandable, I was wondering if you were free this weekend? It's not for anything Shinra related I just...wanted to treat you is all."

Cloud glanced over at Tifa. He figured he'd bring her above plate for a couple of days to watch over her and then bring her back home by Friday seeing as how it was Tuesday. So he definitely was free. 

"Yeah, I'd like that actually." 

"Great meet me at the theater in Sector 7 at around 17:00, this Saturday." 

They shared their goodbyes and Cloud got up to see that Andi put his stew and cakes in the fridge and left a very demanding letter to eat the warm food and to take the stew and cakes to eat for later. 

How Cloud ended up living in a sitcom/drama he doesn't know.


	11. Love...more?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud spends time with Genesis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Online classes make me sad.

Cloud and Tifa caught up a lot while she stayed with him. Tifa, surprisingly apologized for not sticking by Cloud more as a kid and admitted she could have stood up for him more instead of blaming him for being an outcast. Yeah she was nice to him, but she should have been an actual friend to him.  
Cloud told her that there were no hard feelings and that he understood that it was easy to be too scared to say something. He knows that doesn't make it okay or anything it's just, understandable. Not everyone is Cloud, who will butt into whatever he seems harmful and nonsensical.  
Tifa asked what his life was like as a Honey Babe and he gave her some of the details. She kept trying to get info at of him as to whether or not he's slept with any of them but he kept it mysterious. He hasn't.

Not even a little bit 

But it was better to not confirm or deny these things. At least that's what the PR department said. And it adds to his image as people can project whatever they want. The SOLDIERS' various fan clubs all came up with different theories:

The Keepers of Honor aka Angeal's fanclub created the narrative that him and Cloud have been secretly dating for about a month now. They think Angeal broke up with Genesis for Cloud and that Gen and Cloud had a lot of jealous tension between the two of them. They even used footage from a press conference of Genesis looking annoyed while standing next to Angeal as "proof". 

Truth is Genesis was missing a showing of Loveless and was very, very upset about it. 

Red Leather aka Genesis' fan club ( one of two) thinks the opposite. That Genesis wanted a ~pretty soft boy~ to date and be the "man" with that he apparently could not be with Angeal. Him and Angeal got into a huge fight over Genesis' crush on Cloud and it resulted in the end of their relationship both romantically and platonically. One of the Loveless characters is blonde haired, blue eyed, with freckles so they believe this to be "proof" for that theory along with the same press conference from before. They think that Gen was especially annoyed because he was supposed to be watching the show in his private booth with Cloud. It didn't help that Cloud was spotted wandering near the theater. 

Truth is Cloud was trying to find a local Wutai bakery because Sephiroth said he missed these small, round ,gooey, rice cakes with this weird filling inside. The place was by the theater he just couldn't figure out where, which is why he looked like he was looking for someone/something. 

Puppy Love aka Zack's fan club thinks that the two of them have been in love since childhood. Honestly , he doesn't blame them because it turns out their mothers were best friends at one point and even shared an apartment in Midgar. His mom said that they have to stay apart and when asked why she just got quiet and changed the subject. Both of their mothers were popular in Wutai because they were teen models for some magazine called "Popyouth" so them knowing each other was easy to figure out for fans. They came up with the story that Cloud and Zack started dating when Cloud first came to Shinra at the age of 14 and once Cloud became a Honey Baby Zack begged the other three to join in for protection.

Truth is they are a couple of idiots and didn't realize their moms knew each other until Zack's fans pointed it out, and that Cloud and Zack didn't even know each other existed during his time at Shinra. Cloud was supposed to go on a mission with him to the mountains one time but he got sick and stayed behind. 

Last but not least, the Silver Elite aka Sephiroth's fan club. His fan club belived Sephiroth Saw Cloud in the crowd during the opening ceremony at Shinra back when Cloud was fourteen and Seph was sixteen. Sephiroth instantly fell in love with Cloud but he wasn't comfortable with dating a fourteen year old. Sephiroth wanted to wait until Cloud was at least seventeen so they've been dating for a little over a year now according to them. And Sephiroth set up the whole Honey Baby thing to keep Cloud safe and to be able to openly spoil him. 

Truth is Sephiroth hadn't even seen Cloud at that open ceremony one because ...there was a shit ton of people and two because he goes into autopilot when it comes to Shinra events. He gets uncomfortable in social situations and often shuts down , allowing Gen and Ang to take over. People think it's because he's "cool" when really it's because he hates and also doesn't know how to communicate with people outside of a military setting. 

Cloud had noticed Sephiroth that day.

Cloud had embarrassing dreams that he won't tell a soul about that day.

Cloud made sure to take Tifa home and even bought a few new things for the bar. He met this giant Black dude with a gun for an arm , a goofy pudgy White guy, a kinda cute but also sorta nervous about existing White guy and then this one chick who wouldn't stop hitting on him. 

A little girl was there too.

The little girl was Cloud's favorite.

She was smart, a little sassy, and absolutely adorable. 

He wouldn't mind growing up and having kids of his own one day. He can only hope to not screw it up.

He stopped by Granny Nora just to check on her and left with enough food to feed a village before going back above plate, dropping the food off, and then running to go meet Genesis at the theater. 

Genesis was waiting for him by the side entrance when he arrived. He then lead Cloud to a secret space in the back of the theater that gave perfect view of the stage. 

"Have you been in our theater yet Cloud?" 

"Nawh I never really had the money to when I was with Shinra and then I got surprisingly busy with this whole Honey stuff. " He replied as he watched his step creeping up the old wooden stairs that clearly weren't meant for public use anymore. They were safe , but they didn't match the "rich" aesthetic the rest of the theater had. 

Finally they got to the top and oddly enough it was kind of romantic. But then again this is Genesis Rhapsodos we are talking about. Everything he does is very dramatic. 

It was a little, deck type space. It kinda felt like part of an attic. There was this weird bed sofa thing. Like a bed that had the top of it bent forward. Kinda like those movie theaters with the beds. There was a small fridge too and a wine cabinet. There were tons of blankets and pillows, and a window ceiling with a curtain hung in a certain manner that the window could be easily covered. The space had both heating and air conditioning. Along with a little button to call a staff member to come and bring Genesis something. The space was very warm and cozy and he expected no less from the king of Loveless himself. 

"Wow, you could live here." Cloud said in awe of how comfortable the small space was. He noted a door that lead to a bathroom. 

"So you really did grow up poor huh? Why are there so many poor people in our little group." 

Cloud sighed and rolled his eyes before throwing himself onto the bed. If he wasn't careful he'd end up falling asleep. 

Genesis smirked and removed his coat , hanging it on it's on special hook before joining Cloud on the bed. 

Cloud used to be embarrassed whenever they did that but at this point he's kinda used to it. Plus they were all very warm and Cloud loved to nap.

A lot.

They laid there for a bit while Cloud explained what had happened with Tifa.

"Well it's good thing you were there then, I never liked the Don much to be honest." 

Cloud snorted , "No one does. You think I hang on his arm at events for fun? Dude smells like cheap cologne and hot dog water. "

It was Genesis' turn to laugh then, which in turn just caused Cloud to genuinely laugh. 

After they calmed down a bit Genesis checked his PHS. 

"My assistant should be here with our food soon. It's 19:00 so people should be lining up outside in about an hour." 

Cloud hummed and bundled himself up in the dozens of blankets available. " Is Angeal okay? I haven't heard from him for awhile."

" No he's still upset with us since I broke up with him and left him for a little soft boy that looks like my all time favorite character from Loveless." 

That earned him a kick from Cloud.

It didn't hurt but it did make leg feel funny for a second. 

"You're violent for someone so small."

That kick surprisingly did hurt. 

Cloud had no business not being admitted into the SOLDIER program, Mako intolerance or not. 

Then again, Genesis is glad Cloud doesn't have to directly deal with Shinra.

They all are.

"Angeal has just been overworked is all. We haven't heard much from him either and his apartment is on the same floor as ours." 

"Oh, well I got y'all some of those sweet cakes you like from Banora. A sweet old lady under the plate is from there so I got some. They're in our limo's fridge so I'll give it to you when we leave." 

Genesis smiled a little, "That's very sweet of you Cloud." 

Cloud pouted and covered his face a bit with the sheets, "Yeah yeah it was more for Ang I barely even like you." 

Genesis chuckled and slapped Cloud's leg. His PHS rang all of a sudden and he picked up the phone while making his way to go downstairs. 

He came back with a bunch of food, mostly because SOLDIERS and teenage boys eat an ungodly amount of food.

When Genesis turned twenty two this year he was both horrified and relieved. It also turned him off from attempting to do anything with Cloud.

It wasn't the four year difference in itself. It was moreso the transition within ones mindset within those four years. Cloud was cute yeah-

But he baby. 

Genesis didn't mind the snuggling or the hand holding but like anything else would just make him feel grimy.

It sounds dumb but what can he say. 

After they finished eating there was a huge line outside to get in at around 20:30. The we doors just opened and people started piling in. Of course staff came on the small intercom next to the button on the wall and asked Genesis if he needed anything and he told them to bring up some caramel popcorn per Cloud's request. Cloud looked through the menu in awe of how much stuff they had to sell in the theater. 

Cloud watched people look for their seats. There were a shit ton of Shinra personnel here. And he recognized the Study Group fan club, Genesis' second fan club, pour in with their cordinating jackets. He wondered what it was like having a whole organized fan club like that. Nonetheless two. 

When he asked Genesis he shrugged and said he got free stuff and they learned to keep their distance.

Cloud stopped leaning over to look at the crowd , while also doing it in a way to not be seen, and went back to laying in bed with Genesis. Cloud had read a few passages of Loveless for school but he still didn't really...get it. 

But still he was excited when the lights finally began to dim and the music started playing. He looked up from where he essentially burrito-ed himself to see Genesis' expression. It was like he was in a complete trance. 

It was cool to see Genesis so comfortable and happy. 

Hopefully he'll get to see the others the same way.


	12. One Heck of a Visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud finally spends some time at the First-Class housing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished the remake and I cry. Also thank you for all the support! This one has cannon violence so be aware.

Cloud sat uncomfortably on the couch. 

He hadn't been here at Shinra Headquarters for a long period of time since he was a cadet. He's been at Angeal's place since yesterday. They didn't do anything so that being the reason for his discomfort is definitely out of the question.

Something about the energy at Shinra is just weird. 

Angeal had made Cloud strawberry cupcakes with vanilla filling , strawberry vanilla bean frosting and sprinkles. 

Cloud was going to develop high blood pressure and honestly he was fine with that. 

He was on his fourth cupcake when Angeal finally confiscated them and hid them somewhere in his giant fridge. 

"You and Zack have very little self control." Angeal playfully sighed and shook his head before sitting back on the couch.

"Nonsense I'm a growing boy we need food." 

"You're 18 not 13 and a half." 

"Okay but you and Genesis are 22 and eat enough food to save a small village that hasn't recovered from a famine. A famine likely caused by one of you."

"You see, this is why you and Genesis are always arguing."

"Gen and I are always arguing because he's old and talks in Loveless quotes." Cloud said finally unsticking himself from the couch that his body may or may not had modeled into.

Angeal paused what he was doing, "Gen and I are the same age, so am I old?"

"I dunno , does Zack not have the brain of a makohead?

Angeal rolled his eyes and went back into his kitchen with Cloud following close behind. 

"Will you help the elderly then and cut these vegetables for me please? I want dinner ready before Sephiroth comes. He's been gone all day." 

Cloud groaned dramatically while washing his hands and went to go help prep the vegetables. 

This was there usual thing.

Cloud grunted and called him old.

Him and Angeal bake or cook something together. 

It's just usually done at Cloud's place. 

The Shinra building comes off as...cold, no mater what they try to do. But thankfully all the First-Class men's apartments felt like they weren't even in the Shinra building. Even Sephiroth's modern and sleek apartment still had this extra touch that felt more comforting than sterile. 

Only the Holy Trinity and other high ranking officials got to customize their apartments.Angeal's place had a custom brick wall on one side of every room except the bathroom. There were a lot of plants too. He hasn't lived in the country side in almost a decade but the concept of not having any sort of greenery around at all made him uncomfortable. So he had his own garden on his terrace and imported plants placed thought the apartment including the walls and the ceiling. Hardwood floors were put in too, instead of tile. His kitchen was notoriously huge with everything a chef could ask for since cooking and baking was his number way to unwind. His bedroom was also very homey. It was smaller than expected but it seemed to be by his request. His bed was huge, like huge. And the bedframe went up against the brick side of the room. The bed faces the large windows that were impossible to see in both because of the height and them being tinted from the outside. But from within the room it over looked the city and now that it's night , it was absolutely beautiful. Yet still kinda melancholy. 

The master bathroom of course was the perfect place to take a bath. And the bathtub had like fifteen thousand features on it.

Cloud didn't count but he's pretty sure it's fifteen thousand. 

He was glad that he got to hang out here this weekend. It doesn't get a little lonely back at the mansion. Even though he has three more HDs than everyone else it seems like they see theirs far more often than he does. 

Although he guesses the lack of the sexual side to things and the fact that one of them is literally the general of the most powerful military in the world along with his second and third commands may add to the whole "busy" thing. Not to mention Zack is a prolific First that is constantly helping out with training other SOLDIERS and running off to do missions.

It's no surprise that they tend to be pretty busy. 

It had been a few hours since they finished making the food and Angeal was trying to control himself from pacing. 

Cloud could tell since he was scrunching and then quickly un-scrunching his face to then talk about something random. 

Sephiroth was supposed to be here hours ago and his PHS was ringing for awhile until finally by the borderline twentieth call the automated "This PHS is currently out of range, turned off , or no longer in service. Please try again later. " 

That really set Angeal off since Sephiroth always does the mandated check in before turning his PHS for a long period of time. All Shinra personnel were required to to ensure that no one was in danger or AWOL. They had to scan both their finger print and eye before shutting off a PHS for more than four hours. 

It's been six since it first started giving that message.

Cloud and Angeal finished cooking at around 18:00. Angeal called him a few of times between 19:00 and 20:00. Then afterwards it was only giving the automated message and it was currently around 02:00. 

"Cloud stay here I'm going to wake Genesis and Zack so we can go look for him." Angeal said after changing into his uniform and grabbing his sword from it's special place by his bedroom door.

"Are you sure you don't want me to do anything? I can ask some of my old roommates that work in video surveillance to look for him while you guys look on foot? " Cloud said trying his hardest not to sound concerned so that he doesn't upset Angeal any further.

"Actually yes that- " Angeal paused mid step and put his sword back down.

Cloud became alert at Angeal's odd behavior and quickly stood up. 

Angeal put a finger up to Cloud telling him to wait a moment. Then he sniffed, once , twice and then one last time before harshly whispering out "shit" and running out of the apartment.

Cloud then became even more alarmed for obvious reasons and followed him out but was stopped mid way through the living room as Angeal dragged in a very much bloody and a very much injured Sephiroth. Suddenly the whole apartment became flooded with the smell of Mako. Cloud hadn't smelled this much since that mako test he had to take and they had vile after vile sitting all over the room. 

Not only that but Cloud has never seen Sephiroth...hurt.

It sounds dumb but he didn't even think about how that was possible before. 

Which left him standing there startled like an idiot. 

"Cloud go get Zack and Genesis. The moment they wake up they'll know what happened. Quickly. " 

Cloud grabbed Angeal's badge which also functions as a key card and ran into Zack's apartment. 

Zack, who was very much asleep after not being able to sleep in a few days, at first woke up uncharacteristically grumpy. 

"Cloud, what the-" Zack sniffed the same way Angeal did and sprung out of bed. 

Genesis hadn't even said anything and instantly grabbed a mako intoxication kit from under his bed the moment he woke up. 

Cloud's never seen any of them this panicked before. Worried yeah but never genuinely scared. 

When he walked back into Angeal's apartment Sephiroth was laid out onto Angeal's bed and Genesis was swearing left and right puting a needle into Sephiroth's arm with a long tube coming out of it. Cloud had no idea what it was since it didn't look like mako but it was being drained from Sephiroth while Genesis casted a steady string of cures carefully timed out. 

"Thank you Zack, " Angeal suddenly said, " Sephiroth is heavy for even a SOLDIER to carry."

"Well no shit he's huge." Zack was doing that thing where he sits, gets up, puts his hands behind his head, and repeats over and over again at a quick pace. 

"Is he gonna be alright?" 

All of their heads suddenly shot up , instantly remembering that Cloud wasn't exactly used to this situation. 

Genesis sighed, "He'll be alright. Our favorite scientist decided he had something new to test so here we are."

"...That weird guy that runs the labs did this?" 

"Unfortunately." Angeal breathed out. 

"...Why would he...do all that?" Cloud said pointing towards Sephiroth's fainted figure. He had been mumbling when Angeal first brought him in but now he's out cold. 

Genesis sighed again, " Because Shinra is not the place you think it is."

"Genesis." Angeal chastised. 

"What?" Genesis immediately spat out, " it fucking isn't. Cloud I'm not fustrated with you I'm fustrated at the situation. One of these days he could die Angeal."

"Hojo needs him he wouldn't let him die." Angeal said in a monotone voice , clearly not in the mood to argue.

"And if there comes a day that Hojo no longer needs him? Then what?" Genesis shouted before wiping a tear off of his face. " Whatever everyone just get out so I can focus." 

Angeal went to his home office and immediately locked the door. Leaving Zack and Cloud on the sofa cuddled up in a few blankets.

The room was dark and there was nothing but the glow from the tv and the sliver of light coming from Angeal's bedroom and home office peaking from under the door. 

It took awhile before one of them spoke. 

"Hey, Cloud?" 

Cloud turned his head to face Zack. 

" He's gonna be okay. I know it's scary seeing Seph of all people like that but, he's gonna be okay. "

Cloud nodded his head slowly and then leaned back into the couch.

"I sure hope so."


	13. Hidden Feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sephiroth wakes up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Thank you to everyone for your support!

The last thing Sephiroth remembered was dragging himself through the secret passageway that goes from the labs to their residential floor. It was oddly shaped and difficult to navigate if unfamiliar, but unfortunately for him those cold winding hallways were very familiar. They were built to hide when Sephiroth was injured post experimenting on him.  
Sephiroth had lived in the labs since birth until he was about fourteen years old. Then he was moved into the barracks for about a year, bunking with Angeal, Genesis, and a boy who lost his life down in the labs about three months into living with them. Once he was fifteen the three got moved into a shared loft that is now solely Sephiroth's. Which is the reason why his suite on the floor was the biggest, the 2nd biggest in the whole building with Rufus Shinra's penthouse being the first.  
Shinra quickly got concerned with anyone possibly seeing Sephiroth so disheveled. The morale of the soldiers would diminish significantly if the one, the only ,General-at-the-mere-age-of-15 Sephiroth was seen barely holding onto life. So they built this passage way fairly quickly and only those who are under the approval of Sephiroth can live on their floor. Which only had four suites to begin with so Zack is the only non Trinity member on the floor.  
He remembers feeling far dizzier than normal. Which says a lot since he's always barely coherent after these...sessions. He remembers how cold the walls felt as he used them to support himself as he stumbled around.  
He also remembers finally coming out into the hallway and almost passing out a few times within the few feet from the secret door to his place at the very end of the hall, parallel to the elevators at the beginning of the hall. It felt like the longest few feet of his life until he heard what sounded like Angeal shout and the feeling of someone hoisting him up.  
Now he was in Angeal's bed and it seems like they went and grabbed his pajamas. Cloud's signature baby blue fur coat was hanging off the corner of Angeal's closet but no Cloud was present. At least he thought at first before accidentally pressing his hand on Cloud's side while trying to lift himself up. 

"Shit." Sephiroth , honestly surprised by his own very much hoarse voice , grunted out before falling back into bed. He knows he's in a shitty condition if he didn't notice that someone was laying directly next to him. What the hell did Hojo do to him this time? 

Cloud quickly sat up and helped Sephiroth get more comfortable. 

"I'm sorry." Sephiroth grimaced as he shifted to help Cloud fix his pillows. 

"Don't be , you're fine. Well at least in the sense of us I mean. Are you feeling a lil better?" 

Sephiroth sighed, " Yes I'm just sore, this isn't the first time and it won't be the last." 

Cloud sat back a little and frowned, "How come?" 

"It's always been this way. I don't see why it would end anytime soon." 

Cloud cocked his head to the side and frowned again. " I dunno if I'd think that way about it. I know it's hard not to, believe me, but just because something is your past or your present doesn't mean it's gonna be your future ya know? It sounds fucking cheesy yeah but I mean, I thought I was gonna be stuck in that shit hole otherwise known as Nibelheim forever, then I thought I was gonna be broke and desperate for a chance at SOLDIER forever and now I'm most certainly not what I was expecting. Like at all. I know it's really easy to feel like you're condemned to a life of misery and a life of forever dealing with...this but that feeling is just a feeling,not necessarily the truth." 

Sephiroth didn't say anything but based off of Cloud's observations he looked to be thinking. 

"I think that you also gotta remember that you're a lot stronger than Shinra. Most people couldn't deal with what you go through once, nonetheless for two decades straight. I'm not sayin' that what you're going through is a good thing but I also just don't want you to be viewing yourself as weak when you're not. I'm not like...anti-shinra or anything but I think it'd be dumb to think that this company will last forever. Maybe someday you'll be able to live life as you want it to be. And honestly I don't think that you'll have to wait for the end of Shinra either. But I dunno I'm just the Blonde guy in the Wall Market advertisements who's a glorified escort so shit knows. " 

Sephiroth smiled a bit which made him grimace again.  
Cloud smiled a bit back and laid back down while looking up to where Sephiroth was propped up with his pillows. 

"I think things will get better. But I am also very uncomfortable with being the optimistic one in the room so do you wanna talk about something else? To get your mind of things."

Sephiroth nodded his head a bit. 

"Well do you wanna hear about the stupid drama going on back at the house? It's fucking ridiculous." 

Sephiroth slightly shrugged and then nodded his head.

"Okay so, this ass hat of a human being people call Lydell is bat shit insane lemme tell you. So we had the reunion for our tv shit and since for whatever reason I'm considered the priority cast member I'm the one who got asked the most questions. And so then she noticed and looses her absolute fucking mind , which mind you I'm pretty sure she just did it for screentime, and starts ranting about how y'all are paying the network and the Don to make me the new Honey Babe.  
Cause remember when y'all called me to come up to the vip suite after the fashion show thing,shit , whatever and told me y'all heard I had been ranking number one on the bee chart since they debuted my pictures? Well she's really fucking mad about it like it's my fault that the only time she doesn't look completely revolting is when she uses make up to completely alter her face. And even then she still looks hideous ol' bimble fuckass. God I sounded backwater just then but anyway-"

"Why is she acting like she stood a chance to begin with when she's second tier in the house, shouldn't Autumn be the one behaving this way?" Sephiroth softly asked, oddly invested. 

Cloud threw his hands up from where he was laying down.  
"That's what the shit we've all been saying which is why I think she's doing this just for attention. Her HD is a third class SOLDIER.Third. Class. How in this shit is she going to pretend like she stood a chance when Autumn's is a fucking secret cause he's a whole Turk. Like a whole secret service Turk. And a high ranking one at that. Everyone knows an HB's looks, branding, income , ranking and HD is what goes into finally deciding who is going to be the Honey Babe and quite frankly I'm not even fuckin'...trying?  
Like I'm just breathing? They only take you into account so I don't have an unfair advantage when it comes to income but with everything else I'm just... popular? I'm not doing it on purpose I fucking hate people starin' at me it's weird but it's my job. I'm literally just doing my job." 

"People tend to be envious of others for the most asinine things." Sephiroth said while softly playing with Cloud's hair. He doesn't know why, but for some reason Cloud's little tales of pettiness and reality TV show drama did distract him well enough that he didn't notice the stiffness starting to go away in his body. 

It would have been weird if he hadn't started feeling better by now , after all he is Sephiroth. 

"Tell me more about your housemates yelling." 

Cloud snorted and rolled his eyes before telling him more about the drama back at the mansion. 

After awhile Cloud fell back asleep and Sephiroth was left alone with his thoughts. Cloud's life was so normal. Well maybe not normal. The average civilian doesn't have stories about people trying to sabotage photoshoots or stories about interviewers asking a bunch of odd sexual questions. But his life isn't dangerous. Well it could have been but he's safe in the hands of Sephiroth and the rest. 

Well kind of.

Sephiroth was concerned to be honest. Cloud was someone who had not been tainted by the glow of mako. He is sweet, quiet and a bit of a smart ass. Cloud always tries to cheer up his loved ones even though he clearly has some pains of his own. He is absolutely not someone who would deserve the shit that comes with being this close to Shinra personnel. 

Especially not Sephiroth. 

But he was worried that if he pushed him away, that it would leave Cloud vulnerable. Hojo knows of Cloud, Sephiroth knows this because Hojo mentioned him briefly when he first came down to the labs that day. But it seems like Hojo thinks Cloud is beneficial since SOLDIERS tend to go into a mako induced heat after a certain amount of mako injections.

Speaking of which he should probably sneak out to Gen's or something before that happens. 

When Hojo brought it up he could neither confirm nor deny whether or not his speculations were true. Him and Cloud had gone far on one or two occasions, but not that far. He mostly wasn't sure if it was okay to tell Hojo the truth, since he may try to ruin their current set up if he thinks Cloud serves no purpose. 

For now Cloud will be kept close, where Sephiroth can see him.  
________________________________________________

Sephiroth was finally back into good shape. He hadn't seen Cloud in a week and he's been buried in nothing but work since giving the okay to HQ that he was in fact alive and capable of...general-ing, as Zack would say. 

Zack was just glad his boyfriend wasn't a zombie anymore. 

The only thing is, things seem to have gotten a lot more complicated. 

Genesis was currently ranting for Goddess knows how long about how he was sick of the whole "Cloud thing" in Sephiroth's loft. They all met to have dinner except for Cloud, who was hanging out with his friends at his favorite cafe. Honestly Zack thinks Gen might be a bit jealous, or worried that Cloud might become something more than the cute play thing for the Trinity and their puppy. 

Which he voiced much to Genesis' chagrin. 

Angeal and Sephiroth we're desperately trying to avoid fueling the fire. 

"I'm tried of dealing with a civilian. You all saw how upset he got over Sephiroth!"

Zack sighed, "We all were." 

"Yes, but we knew what to do."

"And? We only knew what to do cause we've seen it before." 

"We've seen it before because we're all SOLDIERs. Not only that but what if Cloud was the only one here? Sephiroth would have been screwed."

"Ok'a yea but now he knows whaddah fuck to do 'bout it, shit." 

Okay now Angeal had to intervene since the only time Zack started talking in Gongagan English was when he was upset. Very, very upset. 

"Genesis I see your point but-"

Zack shot up out of his seat, "His point? Whattin' the fuck is 'is point he jus' mouthin' off per fuckin' usual." 

"I'm mouthing off? I want each of you to look me in the eye and tell me that you think Cloud can handle the shit that we go through. And I also want you all to please, please inform me how you'll feel if Cloud goes 'missing' or worse because President Shinra woke up one morning and decided that he was a distraction to us. Beside you're all too attached to him anyway. You've been acting like this foursome consist of five."

"How in the fuck are we too fuckin' attached when you jus' took 'em to the theater a few weeks 'go?" 

"Me attempting to adjust to the current circumstances does not reflect how I actually feel."

"I know you well enough to know that that isn't true, Genesis." Angeal said while rubbing his forehead. 

"Oh please, I'm tired of playing nice. I'm tired of worrying about endangering a civilian. I'm tired of the three of you apparently having far more investment into what is basically supposed to be a toy. And I'm tired of you all selfishly ignoring the fact that having him this close is a bad idea."

Zack threw his arms up in the air and then put his hands behind his head. 

Angeal sighed, "Then we won't bring him here anymore and we'll just visit him at his place or at an event or outing." 

"No more outings , I'm capable of just playing around with him but it seems like the rest of you can't control yourselves so none of us are going on these little dates anymore. " 

" An' why? Cause you saysso there's no more hangin' out wit Cloud?" 

"Exactly because that's how this works Zack, if one of us is uncomfortable than we no longer do whatever stupid shit we were up to!" Genesis yelled before running a hand through his hair .

" An' you finna be the one to tell 'em that ? Cause ya seem wicked fuckin' comf' wit it. "

Genesis, before anyone could register what he was up to , stormed out the room , grabbed his phone and stormed back in greeting Cloud who was now on the phone with him. 

"Genesis." Angeal warned, but Genesis just ignored him and carried on anyway. 

"Cloud, you aren't allowed to be spending any private time with us anymore. We will send for you when we need you for an event and that's it."

Cloud sounded confused at first and paused before saying "okay" and asking if there was anything he had done. 

Instead of answering Genesis just hung up.

"There, since the rest of you are a bunch of fucking cowards. " Genesis walked out of the room and into the bathroom to look for pain killers for his headache.

Zack paced angrily for a moment before harshly saying "whatever" and slamming the door on his way out of the apartment. 

Sephiroth almost wishes he was still knocked out from the mako testing.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zack was now angrily laying on the ground. 

He was also happy Aerith's mom wasn't home since she seems to kinda hate him. 

Also he was at Aerith's house. 

"Zack you're in the way and I got flowers to sell." The florist said while stepping over him. 

He was laying on the stone path in front of some yellow flowers. He forgets what they're called but Aerith really likes them. 

Zack only grunted in response.

"You need to get up silly. I might trip over your big head and you might be in the way of some poor insect trying to get back to its family."

"Tsk, it'll just crawl over me whatever."

"Ew Zack, who in the hell wants bugs using them as some sort of bug bridge?"

"I didn't say I wanted 'em to I just don't care if they do."

Aerith sighed and finally bent down to face Zack eye to eye. 

"What's the matter big guy? You came down here all mopey and now it's bring the mood of my flowers down. Nobody wants to buy clinically depressed flowers." 

Zack groaned and dramatically kicked his legs like a toddler. 

"Tell me what's wrong and I'll give you some yummy animal crackers. I even made some special frosting just for you to dip them in." She said poking his stomach a few times.

Zack sighed and sat up to cross his legs. "We, Genesis and I, well I guess all of us, had a fight. "

"Yeah, about what?"

"Cloud."

"Cloud?"

"Honestly I think Gen is just worried about Cloud's safety which I can't blame him but like he's so... aggressive about it. I dunno it's just...I'm getting kinda tired of this whole balancing act. "

Aerith finally fully sat down and set her flower picking basket right next to her. 

"What do you mean?"

"I dunno I'm just tired. Like I care about all of them yeah but I don't think I wanna deal with...juggling all of this anymore. "

She paused for a moment, "Are you saying that you want to break up with them?"

Zack groaned and then laid back down on the ground again, "not necessarily but I also kinda just wanna not...be bothered anymore. Like we don't discuss things it's just ...annoying. And I mean there's other people out there that I think I'd be good with."

"Oh? This seems sudden."

"It's not it's just, I'm starting to get...too annoyed with it now ya know? Like before I could let it pass but I dunno it all kind of just built up. Remember when I had to try to convince Gen that there wasn't anything going on between us? All I did was say if I dated a girl she'd be like you. Which is what he had asked me in the first place. Why should he be upset over something he asked to know?"

"Maybe he's worried about loosing you guys to someone else? " 

"He should be more worried about driving one of us away cause honestly that shit he did to Cloud has me like an engine on steam"

"Engine on- my God you and Cloud are country." 

Zack smiled and threw a handful of grass at her. 

"Hey! My grass doesn't deserve instant death just because you can't handle the truth." Aerith giggled before tackling Zack declaring that she was going to avenge the death of the now scattered patch of grass he pulled out. 

They wrestled for a bit until Zack finally got tired of letting Aerith win and scooped her and her flower basket up to take inside. 

"Hey , put me down!" Aerith slapped and kicked at Zack as she hung from his shoulder. 

"I'll put ya down on the couch. Unless you wanna be on the ground?" Zack paused threateningly before Aerith finally settled down and let him carry her to the couch. 

Oddly enough Aerith felt like Zack's only sense of normalcy. Yeah, he liked to play video games and chill with Cloud. But he'd be lying to himself if he said Aerith wasn't the kind of person Zack pictured himself to end up with when he was a kid. 

He loved the others obviously. A lot. In fact the thought of breaking up with them hadn't really been on his mind. He was just fustrated that they couldn't communicate for shit. 

Zack loves Angeal for being such a caring and loving person. He genuinely wanted to be in the military to help others and to protect those who are most vulnerable. Angeal also had a way to make Zack smile and is this reason why Zack made it this far, this young, in the first place. 

Zack loves Sephiroth for his goofy "how do you do fellow human" demeanor that can only be seen by those closest to him. He really does try to learn how to interact with his peers, it's just really difficult for him to express himself. Mostly because he was trained not to. 

And Zack loves Genesis for how passionate he is. Even if it gets annoying sometimes. Genesis is just very protective and would risk his life for a lived one without a second thought.

But maybe being in a romantic relationship isn't all that much of a good idea anymore. Especially since it feels like Zack being added caused more of a strain than anything else on the other three. 

Zack told Aerith everything in detail over some homemade chicken potpie. And while helping her clean up. And while he lounged on the couch while he did some chores.

Zack had a lot of thoughts.

"Zack you should go check in on Cloud before going home." Aerith said while putting some flowers in water. "He might be upset after that phone call."

Zack sat up, stretched and started to head out the door. "Yeah you're right, lemme go before I miss the train." He grabbed his animal crackers and frosting to go.

Don't think he'd ever forget 'em. 

Might as well get this over with.


	14. Distance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud and the others grow distant and Cloud doesn't really understand why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I disappeared for a couple of months but hear me out, I got busy with my summer job that's full time and then I got busy screaming about how my life matters (I'm Black) and all that jazz but here I am...back it again... with the nonsense.

It's been a few months since the last time Cloud had seen the others. 

Last time he saw Genesis was when they went to a cafe inside the Shinra building.

Last time he saw Angeal they spared in one of the VIP training rooms.

Last time he saw Zack, they kinda...did...the...thing...that...Cloud... isn't...ready to say. But that made Zack's particular disappearance more hurtful than the others.

The only person who still contacted him oddly enough, was Sephiroth. 

He still regularly checked in on Cloud and would drop by to make food for him since Cloud had the tendency to forget to eat as of late. 

Which isn't something he's done since he was living in Nibelheim. 

And in Nibelheim Cloud was not the happiest person.

Which makes Cloud believe that he probably isn't very happy at the moment.

But he feels... fine?

Yeah he feels tired all the time and it's a little hard to get up and do what he's got to do for the day but he isn't crying or angry all the time like in Nibelheim.

He honestly doesn't know what his deal is. 

Cloud was sitting in the bar "Seventh Heaven", where Tifa works. Cloud's presence apparently brings in a lot of costumers , so he doesn't mind sitting around to help pay the bills. 

It was also just funny to watch Biggs and Wedge desperately try to impress him.

The first time he met Biggs he bumped into him while walking around with Tifa. Biggs almost practically didn't notice that Tifa was even there until he got a swift kick in the back of the knee for not returning Tifa's greeting. 

Then he met Wedge the same day once they all made their way to the bar and watched him accidentally sit on one of his cats in disbelief. 

Cloud at this point was fairly use to his popularity, although it was still weird to see so many people flustered over just some short kid from the country. 

"Hey Cloud!" Tifa suddenly calling for him broke his train of thought. 

Cloud hummed and looked up, "Yeah?" 

He looked up to see Tifa barely carrying a bunch of plates of finger foods and a tray of beers. Before she could ask he immediately got up and helped bring orders to peoples tables. 

Normally Cloud would help out before Tifa could even pull something like that , but honestly he's been lost in his thoughts. 

Cloud just couldn't figure out what in the fuck he did wrong. If anything. Genesis, Zack and Angeal just suddenly disappeared and whenever he asks Sephiroth about it he just shakes his head and says "it's illogical." 

Which means he knows why but he won't tell him because he thinks it's something stupid. 

But Cloud is going to ask him again anyway. 

After awhile Tifa said it was okay for Cloud to go home since they met their quota for the night. Cloud of course asked if she was sure fifteen thousand times before she finally (half jokingly) threatened him to go home. 

Which Cloud was going to do, before he suddenly grew brave and showed up in front of Sephiroth's door ready to integrate the others if they were to appear. 

After a few knocks the door opened to reveal Sephiroth in his pajamas.

Ten out of ten , it is a chef kiss worthy sight. 

But that isn't what Cloud is here for. 

Cloud walked in without even waiting to be invited and waited for him to close the door. 

May the gods bless the person who decided Black satin pajama pants should be a thing.

But that isn't what Cloud is here for.

Sephiroth sighed, in his barely audible Sephiroth way and walked over to Cloud.

"You're upset?"

Cloud huffed and shook his head, "No, I'm just ...confused."

The general frowned a bit. "About what?"

Cloud sighed and sat down, "I don't understand why they suddenly just went...poof. Did they say anything to you about it?"

Sephiroth thought for a moment, " I think Cloud, it would be better to just be content with still receiving money from them without having to juggle them." 

He scrunched his face , " Money or not this still comes across as disrespectful. You don't just befriend someone or do ...things with someone and then just disappear." 

The taller man shrugged, " Maybe it should be looked at more as you being a form of entertainment rather than anything else. 

To say Cloud felt sick was an understatement. They were all perfectly fine with one another and then suddenly all this drama happened. It felt like he was riding a brand new, expensive bike until a brick wall suddenly appeared and he crashed. 

Face first. 

Cloud suddenly shot up, which startled Sephiroth a bit, before he muttered a "nevermind" and left the apartment. 

That was the last time he was going to see Sephiroth for awhile. 

The Shinra building was as beautiful yet cold as it always was while Cloud made his way down the elevator.

Cloud didn't understand why none of them could recognize why he'd be hurt by them suddenly not contacting him. But then again maybe Sephiroth was right he was growing an attachment to people who clearly don't want anything more than Honey Baby and it's his fault for ever believing anything else.

It's just Zack is the last person he ever thought would do something like that. Especially not after what they did.

The elevator finally stopped at the first floor private hallway and Cloud absentmindedly stepped off to walk right into the chest of someone.

Damn his mother and her hobbit genes. 

"Shit my bad" he stepped back only to realize the dude he bumped into was none other than the vice president himself. 

The VP smirked and shook his head, "It's alright." Then he took a second and got a good look. " Aren't you Cloud?"

He shrugged, "Aren't you Rufus Shinra?"

He shrugged back. 

"Well... I gotta try to get some food since they don't got 24 hours above plate." 

"24 hours?" Rufus cocked his head a bit confused. 

"Yeah, twenty four hour restaurants. Everything up here closes by 23:30." Cloud began to make his way past Rufus. 

Rufus looked down at his watch, "This may be unfortunate news for you but it's 23:45." 

It took everything in Cloud not to throw himself into the ground in anguish. 

"But you're welcome to join me. I always make too much food anyway." The soon-to-be president held the elevator door open.

Cloud weighed his options, he either goes home and eat instant ramen since he never buys groceries, he can eat rich people food or he can possibly be murdered or worse. 

He figured if anything one of the Firsts on the floor beneath the VP's loft will hear and maybe save him.

To you know, not waste their monetary investment.

He finally shrugged and got back on the elevator.


	15. Play, boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud gets to know Rufus Shinra.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sleepy and it's like the butt crack of dawn rn so I'm sorry if there are any mistakes! It's also gonna be a little short.

Cloud surprisingly really liked hanging out with Rufus. The two hit it off over dinner and it definitely made Cloud feel a lot better about the whole...HD situation. 

"So you used to be a Shinra employee Cloud?" Rufus asked while pouring out some more wine for Cloud. 

They were sitting in one of Rufus' window nooks after finishing their dinner. Cloud was far too comfortable and tucked himself into one Rufus' lavish plush blankets. Midgar was ugly by day but strangely beautiful by night. Mostly because no one can see the pollution and fog and solely the city lights against the dark sky. 

"Yeah I was infantryman for a few years but... I have a mako intolerance issue so I didn't pass the test for SOLDIER. " 

Rufus grimaced, "But you passed everything else?"

"Yeah, with flying colors actually." 

"...that, you should have been offered a position to train for the Turks then. That's so, strange." 

Cloud pouted in thought, "Really? They just told me to leave since they were cutting the infantrymen program."

"And who told you this?" 

"Commander Daily. Although I gotta admit...the dude's a little creepy. It always felt like he had a crush on me and I was like fifteen. " 

Rufus frowned, "It was him so that makes sense now." 

Before Cloud could question it Rufus changed the subject. 

"So do you enjoy being in... entertainment now?" 

The blonde nodded softly in thought, "My ma did entertainment stuff when she lived in Wutai before I was born, so I don't feel ashamed or nothin' "

Rufus smiled softly, Cloud's little soft country accent was adorable. He had heard who Cloud's HDs were. Everyone has. But it seems like the four are foolish enough to not fully claim Cloud as theirs and solely there's. 

There's something very... Farmer's Virgin-y about Cloud. Like he comes off very innocent but if given the chance a whole other side of him could be shown. While still being innocent. 

His dad did keep pestering for him to find someone to run around with. Mostly to keep him distracted from the happenings of the business. But he wouldn't mind having Cloud on his shoulder for awhile. 

The two kept talking until they realized it was almost six in the morning. 

Rufus ordered one of the Turks to drop him off and promised Cloud that he'd make plans to see him again. 

That's how they ended up on the cover of a tabloid magazine. 

Rufus took Cloud to his off site apartment and the two had been laying on the outside bed on Rufus' balcony. Someone managed to sneak in a couple of photos of Cloud laying in bed, waiting for Rufus to come back with their sodas. 

Cloud had only noticed at the last minute and quickly told Rufus who began to shut the curtains that surround the balcony. 

"Fuck, is that gonna be like ...an issue?" Cloud asked sitting up now that the curtain was fully closed and Rufus was back with their drinks and some snacks. 

Rufus shook his head, "At most it'll be on the cover of some tabloid and it'll be something along the lines of 'Multi Millionaire Playboy Vice President Rufus Shinra Spends Time with the Next Honey Babe Cloud Strife' which , isn't a lie I guess. "

He laid back down next to Cloud and wrapped an arm around him. 

Cloud shrugged and nodded his head. If Rufus isn't worried about then there's no need for him to be. Honey Babies aren't looked at as Honey Daddies significant others so it's not like people are going to think he's cheating on any of them.

In fact Cloud being a "dog tag collector" oddly became a part of his image. The term was used for those who seduce high ranking Shinra officials and seeing as how Cloud has been official spotted with the prettiest Hugh ranking Shinra officials, it's really not all that surprising and he doesn't blame people for thinking that way. Sofar he's only had sex with Zack but not everyone knows that. It would make sense to assume that Cloud would've slept with the world's more desirable men by now.  
But he wasn't even talking to them right now nonetheless having sex with them. 

But at least he still had someone to make out with.

Cloud swears the city is changing him because never would he have ever allowed some dude to be on top of him all willy-nilly with his tongue down his throat but you know what. 

Cloud's bein' a lil wild now okay? 

He didn't really know how it happened but him and Rufus quickly became friends with a little bit of benefits. 

Pants stay on but everything else was fine. 

Cloud would even stay the night and the two would cuddle and watch some late night adult cartoon tv block. 

What can he say, he's a sucker for rich, tall , pretty boys he can't help it. 

Rufus also spoiled Cloud, which is something the others use to do. At first Cloud felt bad but Andi reminded him that he was cute and young and should take advantage of that while he can. 

Andi had a long talk with him about him deserving to have fun and date as many pretty playboy millionaires as he can. 

Which lead Cloud to frequent Rufus' apartment to enjoy free food and couture. 

The whole kissing shit was nice too. 

Eventually Rufus got off of Cloud to go handle a phone call. Which he did fairly often.

He doesn't blame him of course since he is the Vice President of ShinRa. But it does kinda suck when he ends up on the phone for hours. But oddly enough since when he comes out of whatever room him holed himself up into he's typically annoyed and fustrated, he magically comes back ten times more gropey and ten times more passionate when he kisses. 

So again Cloud isn't complaining. 

It's been a few months since he's seen the others , or even spoken to them. But he's still receiving his checks from the four men. He figured that he should just be happy with that and move on. If he feels like sleeping with anyone he does have to get special permission from them though. Mostly because they need to have clear communication when it comes to sexual partners. But honestly he's not going to be in the mood for that for awhile. 

When he is though he's most definitely not hesitating. If anyone's mad about it they could suck his ass.

Well they could've before they acted like asses themselves. 

He'll probably feel like it eventually since Rufus looks like...Rufus. But as of right now he's really not interested in anything other than a kiss and a grope or two. 

He's also not going to bother to tell them about his situation with Rufus either. If he finds out , he finds out.


End file.
